^ 


scf\ 


PICKINGS 

FROAI 

A  POCKET  OF  PEBBLES" 


^ ''  '^'^^ 


^\ 


>>PICKINGS  < 


BV. 

WILLIAM  "PHILPOT". 


With  Introductory  Note  by 
A.  K.  Grosart,  LL.D.,  F.S.A. 


NEW   YORK : 

WHITE,  STOKES,  AND  AI.LEN, 

182  Fifth  Avenue. 

[All  rights  reserved.] 


<!) 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 

I  HAVE  been  asked  by  the  Publisher 
to  introduce  these  "Pickings"  from 
"A  Pocket  of  Pebbles  ",  by  my  "  brother 
beloved",  the  Rev.  William  l!. 
Philpot.  I  confess  my  first  impulse 
was  to  plead  the  old  saw,  "Good  wine 
needs  no  bush  ",  or  unmetaphorically, 
to  decline,  as  holding  it  superfluous 
to  come  between  readers  and  such  a 
book.  Next,  there  arose  the  inevitable 
feeling  of  one  reverentially  and  lovingly 
familiar  with  the  original  volume  (in 
its  two  editions)  and  which  one  rather 
wished  doubled  or  trebled  than  lessened, 
"Wherefore  'Pickings'?"  Sheridan 
so  received  Dodd's ' '  Beauties  of  Shake- 
speare ",  adding  "  But  where  are  all 


€  ItttroSuctorg  |tote. 

the  rest" — accentuating  "all" — and 
on  the  first  blush  of  it,  I  did  not  relish 
diminution  by  even  one  of  these 
"Pebbles"  of  fine  Thought,  Fancy, 
Word-play,  wise  Teaching,  penetrative 
Criticism,  seer-like  Warning,  daintiest 
phrasing.  I  became,  however,  recon- 
ciled to  the  small  task  of  love  by  pleas- 
ing myself  with  the  notion  that  per- 
chance my  fore-word  may  lead  more 
to  buy  and  read.  I  further  venture 
a  prophetic  hope  that  this  tinier  tome 
will  quicken  capable  and  reflective 
readers  to  secure  the  complete  work, 
from  the  classic  press  of  my  other 
bookish  and  most  loveable  friend. 
Master  Robert  Roberts,  of  Boston, 
Lincolnshire. 

Leaving  it  to  be  found  out  how  it  is 
the  Author  designates  his  book  "A 


Pocket  of  Pebbles",  and  resisting 
repetition  of  the  well-worn  anecdote 
of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  I  may  illustrate 
the  two  MOODS  under  which  these 
"Pickings"  will  be  best  read  and 
pondered. 

First— If  you  take  a  piece  of  mica- 
streaked  or  seamed  stone, — wave-pol- 
ished "  pebble  " — and  put  it  in  the 
water,  the  golden-silvern  gleam  is  lost. 
To  get  that,  you  must  lay  it  in  the 
sunshine— as  last  summer  I  did  a  glori- 
ous find  on  Lago  Como's  shore. 

Second— If  you  lift  a  streaked  and 
veined  and  speckled  stone  —  again 
wave-polished  "  pebble  " — and  put  it 
on  the  sand,  the  streaks  and  veins  and 
speckling  are  equally  lost.  To  get 
these,  you  must  lay  it  in  the  water— as 


Introtrnflorg  ^oie. 


at  same  time  and  place  1  did  a  frag- 
ment of  agate. 

Similarly,  there  are  in  these  "  Pick- 
ings", thoughts  and  fancies,  musings 
and  introspections  for  hours  of  gladness, 
and  there  are  others  that  must  be 
steeped  in  tears,  or  that  will  only  re- 
veal their  depth,  their  graciousness, 
their  apt  consolation,  their  wise  sug- 
gestiveness,  to  Sorrow. 

Light  and  shadow,  wisdom  and  wit, 
pathos  and  humour,  antique-flavoured 
moralizing,  and  present-day  penetra- 
tiveness  lace  and  interlace  in  my  dear 
friend's  winsome  little  book.  I  right 
cordially  commend  it  to  gentle  and 
simple. 

I  know  not  that  I  can  better  close 
this  "  Introductory  Note "  than  by 
adding  a  dedicatory  sonnet  prefixed  by 


me  to  my  collection  of  the  Works  of 
Abraham  Cowley  in  the  Chertsev 
Worthies'  Library  : — 

TO 
THE  REV.  WILLIAM  B.  PHJLPOT, 
Author  of  "A  Pocket  of  Pebbles,  with  a  few 
Shells ;  being  Fragments  of  Reflections, 
now  and  then  with  a  Cadence,  made  up 
mostly  by  the  Sea-shore," 
I  dedicate,  admiringly   and   gratefully,   this 
first  worthy  edition  of  the  Works  of  Cowley. 


The  lapse  of  time  has  made  thy  very  name 
Poetical ;  and  more,  it  stirs  our  love, 
E'en  as  'twere  of  a  personal  friend,  above 
The  mists  that  now,  CoWLEY,  becloud  thy 

fame. 
As,  when  the  sun  is  set,  a  swift-shot  flame 
Gleams  in  the  skies,  and  upwards  still  doth 

move. 
Touching  with  rosy  splendour  stream  and 
grove. 


lo  IivtrobnctorB  gott. 

So  Cowley  'tis  with  thee.    I  may  not  claim 

That  thou  art  now  in  men's  mouths  as  of  old. 
Or  for  thy  works  the  lustre  once  they  held  ; 

But  pleasant  memories  still  thy  name  enfold; 

Thought— fancy— English  rare,  of  days  of  eld, 

AVere  thine  ;  and  to  a  chosen  few,  to-day. 

They  still  are  dear ;    Philpot,  thou'lt  not 

gainsay. 

Alexander  B.  Grosart, 

LL.D.,  F.S.A. 


PICKINGS  FROM 


^  iorket  oi  i^bblcs". 


Of  art  in  life. 

A  large  part  of  life  is,  or  ought  to 
be,  spent  in  making  up  our  imperfec- 
tions and  redeeming  old  mistakes. 
In  many  a  drawing,  some  wrong 
form  in  an  early  stage,  some  strong 
or  misplaced  light,  or  some  unjust 
shadow,  requires  for  its  expunging, 
or  its  retiring,  for  its  bringing  up, 
or  else  for  its  keeping,  valuable 
hours  which  might  have  been  spent 
in    doing    many    things    in    the    pic- 


12  ^itktngs  from 

ture  which  therefore  have  yet  to  be 
done. 

"Bellona  pronuba". 

One  of  the  happiest  marriages  I 
know  was  on  this  wise.  A  well-to-do 
farmer's  wife  died,  and  left  a  large,  Lut 
small,  family.  He  had  an  excellent 
house-keeper.  He  became  attached  to 
her  ;  but  his  love  cooled,  and  he  was 
for  breaking  it  off.  Nothing  of  the 
sort !  Her  ladyship  had  insight  enough 
to  see  that  he  was  only  a  weak  man  ; 
and  she  knew  no  less  well  that  she  was  a 
strong  woman,  a  help  meet  for  him,  and 
capable  of  doing,  and  wanting  to  do, 
the  best  for  him  ;  and  so  she  sued  him 
there  and  then— "sued"  for  his  hand  ! 
He,  finding  it  so,  Hke  a  sensible  man, 
made  the  best  of— I  will  not  say  a  bad 
job;  for  I  affirm  that  this  is  one  of  the 


^  l&ochet  of  pebbles.  i? 

brightest  and  happiest  couples  I  know. 
She  never  "has  any  words"  with  the 
first  family,  who  respect  and  love  her 
from  oldest  to  youngest ;  from  first,  as 
I  hope  to  last. 

A  heap  of  stones,  and  therefore 
not  to  be  numbered  with  my 
pebbles. 

A  Parson's  business  is  that  of  a 
stone-breaker.  But  there  is  usually 
not  a  stone-breaker  in  the  parish  who 
has  such  hard  work  before  him.  The 
power  of  co7rjertmg  people  ought,  it 
seems  to  me,  to  be  a  primary  requisite 
in  the  eyes  of  those  who  pass  Christian 
ministers  into  Holy  Orders. 

A  word  to  the— unwise. 

Ye  lovers,  be  not  one-eyed.  If,  oh 
eligible  young  woman,  a  man  has  home, 
and  land,  and  money, but  not  love — you 


14  ^irkings  from 

will  of  course  not  be  such  a  little  fool 
as  to  wish  for  him  because  of  those? 
But  if  he  professes  love  for  you  before 
he  has  a  home  and  fair  means  of  com- 
mon life  to  offer  you,  or  at  least  a  good 
hope  of  these  within  reasonable  time — 
his  love,  whatever  it  may  turn  to  after- 
wards, is  now  but  an  airy,  ideal, 
theoretical,  unembodied,  unsubstantial 
thing,  not  yet  the  least  to  be  leaned  on. 
Love,  if  we  would  personify  the  little 
god  completely,  must  have  both  sub- 
stance and  spirit — a  fair  amount  of  wit 
being  taken  for  granted. 

Of  laborious  trifling. 

Seeing  that  no  right-minded  man 
liveth  to  himself  alone,  it  might  seem 
uninteresting,  not  to  say  stupid— except 
we  have  to  get  our  bread  by  it — to 
steep  ourselves  in  any  special  know- 


^  pocket  of  |3cbl)lcs.         15 


ledge  which  none  shall  have  but  we. 
This  however  is  sometimes  made  up 
for  and  rendered  rational,  if  men  leave 
behind  them  books  which  keep  for  the 
use  of  the  rising,  changing,  and  grow- 
ing world  the  upshot  of  the  exercise  of 
special  gifts.  Such  may  become  useful 
some  day,  except  their  chosen  topics 
be  in  their  very  nature  useless.  I  am 
told  of  a  man  who,  having  wearied  him- 
self over  the  majestic  inhumanities  of 
the  Lucretian  deity,  fell  asleep  and 
dreamt  this  ghastly  line — "  Immemora- 
bilium  perfurva  crepuscula  palpans"; 
which  his  learned  brother  translates, 
"  Handling  the  tawny  twilights  of 
immemorables." 

The  other  side  of  the  picture. 

Those  who  live   always   in   natural 
and  rightful  enjoyment  must  perforce 


i6  ^irkings  front 

fail  to  realize  the  keenness  of  relish 
with  which  a  man  mostly  steeped  in 
unnatural  misery  welcomes  such  a 
parenthesis  of  pleasure  as  from  time  to 
time  may  come.  Can  you  not  some- 
times minister  that  comfort  to  your 
poorer  neighbour? 

Sin  brought  home. 

It  is  curious  to  observe,  how  much 
more  enormous  and  outrageous  we  are 
apt  to  count  a  piece  of  dishonesty,  if 
we  ourselves  are  pinched  by  it.  The 
other  day  a  man  in  my  neighbourhood 
was  dishonest  about  an  insurance  busi- 
ness. I  thought  it  sad,  and  a  heinous 
thing  in  the  land  ; — but  only  when  I 
found  afterwards  that  this  very  man 
had  actually  taken  a  tax  out  of  my 
own  pocket  and  not  paid  it  into  the 
Bank — my  indignation  knew  no  bounds. 


^  pocket  of  pebbles.         17 

Turn  deinurn  T  felt  what  a  crime  dis- 
honesty was ! 

Of  social  estimates. 

The  world  is  fouler  than  some,  and 
fairer  than  others  can  imagine. 

Of  the  making  of  gifts. 

When  j'ou  give  anything  away,  as 
money,  3'ou  should  not  do  so  with  any 
feeling  of  triumph  in  the  power  of  dis- 
posal, but  with  humility,  and  with  a 
sense  ofresponsibility  to  the  Giver  of  all 
things  good.  We  none  of  us  have  any- 
thing which  we  have  not  received.  This, 
like  most  of  these  things,  is  not  new. 
Enough  if  I  remind  my  readers,  and 
myself,  that  it  is  tnce. 

Of  occasions. 

To  let  an  opportunity  go  is  the  act 
of  a  fool ;  but  in  the  polarity  of  stupi- 


i8  ^trktngs  from 


dity,  to  go  out  of  your  way  for  disaster 
and  to  "go  to  market  for  sorrow  "  is  the 
act  of  a  madman. 

"Lacteoli  animi". 

Rational  wonder  is  but  the  opening 
of  the  mind  to  draw  the  breasts  of 
knowledge. 

Laws  and  laws. 

The  laws  of  nature  must  be  qualified 
by  the  laws  of  society.  The  man  who 
forgets  this  runs  his  head  at  every  turn 
against  living  walls  harder  than  his 
block. 

Of  pace  in  expression  of  thought. 

The  power  of  speaking  ought  obvi- 
ously to  be  commensurate  with  the 
power  of  writing  ;  for  the  same  mental 
power,  be  it  great  or  small,  is  at  the 


31  ^otket  of  ^ebbUs.         -lo 

bottom  of  both.  This  inequality  is  a 
question  of  /ace,  and  is  a  superable 
accident.  If  indeed  in  his  writing  a 
man  do  not  accustom  himself  to  have 
his  thoughts  in  fair  order  before  he  so 
expresses  himself,  then  it  is  only  to  be 
expected  that  his  tongue  will  hang  fire 
just  as  his  pen  does,  and  his  failure  in 
speaking  may  be  fairly  set  down  as 
merely  his  own  fault.  But  many  men 
who  write  currente  cala77to  cannot 
speak  on  the  very  same  topic  with  run- 
ning tongue.  How  is  this  ?  It  is 
because  the  pace  at  which  he  writes 
must  at  its  quickest  be  slower  than  the 
pace  requisite  for  a  fluent  oration.  To 
remove  this  incongruity,  the  symbols 
of  written  language  must  be  so  arranged 
as  to  admit  of  the  same  pace  in  writing 
as  in  speaking.  Then  he  who  can  write 
with  facility  will  naturally,  and  from 


20  ^irkings  from 

uniform  pace  of  thought,  be  able  also 
to  speak  with  felicity. 

The  blackberry  season. 
A  man  with  leisure  and  education  is 
like  one  on  horseback  in  a  lane  in  the 
blackberry  season.  He  can  get  fine, 
ripe  blackberries,  that  have  been  be- 
yond the  reach  of  the  little  vulgar 
boy.  Who  does  not  envy  such  high 
riders  ? 

"Insipiens  sapientia." 

People  sometimes  do  dispassionately 
and  after  long  deliberation,  earnest 
consideration,  and  reconsideration, 
things  more  wild  and  outrageous  than 
other  people  do  by  their  first  unreflecting 
and  unconscious  impulse.  The  marvel 
is,  that  this  is  sometimes  true  of  the 
very  same  persons ! 


Si  ^ofhct  oi  pebbles. 


Works  and  hours. 

What  to  do  and  what  not  to  do,  what 
pertains  and  what  does  not  pertain  to 
our  eternal  life,  what  is  a  primary  and 
what  a  secondary  duty,  and  what  is 
not  a  duty  at  all,  but  merely  a  useless 
or  illegitimate  pleasure,  is  often  a  pain- 
ful question.  "Gather  up  the  frag- 
ments, that  nothing  be  lost"  refers 
closely  to  tz7J2e  in  this  regard. 

Of  platitudes. 

In  public  speaking,  or  in  treating  of 
any  subject,  be  original  amidst  your 
accurate  array  of  facts,  and  have  a 
bony  framework  of  knowledge  under- 
lying the  nerves  of  your  originality ; 
else  what  you  say  is  flaccid  and  pulpy 
stuff,  and  not  lively  oracle. 


^ifkings  from 


Of  the  taking  of  gifts. 

If  you  lightly  take  gifts,  you  blind 
yourself,  and  you  bind  yourself. 

The  origin  of  love. 

If  any  of  our  emotions  of  love  or  our 
impulses  of  affection  begin  from  our 
spirit  and  flow  to  the  spirit  of  the  object, 
then  and  then  only  are  they  in  order. 
It  is  from  the  bottom  of  the  soul  that 
love  should  take  its  rise.  To  be  moved 
towards  another  in  other  wise  than 
from  the  heart  is  out  of  place,  and  is 
disturbing  and  dangerous.  We  cannot 
well  desire  more  than  one  at  a  time 
from  the  heart ;  and  if  such  a  desire  be 
held  in  due  check  by  social  obligation, 
a  man  cannot,  I  should  think,  go  far 
wrong  in  these  matters.  It  is,  however, 
only  the   Spirit  proceeding  from  the 


31  ^0Ckct  of  Nibbles.         23 


Father  and  the  Son  who  can  order  all 
emotions  duly. 

Of  limits  in  sympathy. 

Take  care  not  to  give  way  too  far  to 
that  feeling  of  universal  sympathy, 
whose  frequent  formula  is  "it  is  all 
the  same."  It  soon  comes  to  universal 
apathy. 

Language  of  a  yawn. 

Wb.o  has  not  often  noticed  that  some 
of  the  most  crucial,  telling,  obstinate, 
and  determined  observations  are  made 
with  a  yawn,  as  the  heart  of  a  letter  is 
sometimes  deferred  to  the  postscript? 
Always  take  the  more  careful  note  of 
what  a  man  says  to  you  with  a  yawn ! 

A  word  for  the  dead. 

In  the  march  of  mind  it  is  habitual 
for  writers  to  beat  down  their  prede- 


24  |3i£kin3S  from 

cessors,  and  to  tread  ruthlessly  over 
their  carcases  the  moment  they  have 
fallen.  It  may  well  be  so  where  the 
impressions  of  such  writers  have  been 
based  on  facts  wholly  false  :  but  it  is 
too  much  our  habit  to  forget  that,  when 
facts  have  all  been  before  the  mind, 
the  special  impressions  of  men  are  all 
valuable,  so  far  as  they  are  genuine,  no 
matter  who  comes  before  or  after 
other. 

A  fool's  laughter. 

The  discovery  of  truth  is  often,  but 
most  unjustly,  retarded  by  the  laugh 
raised  at  some  isolated  failure  of  an 
early  enquirer. 

Of  moods. 

Our  own  moods  vary  widely,  yet  we 
cannot  at  the  moment  precisely  com- 


S"  pocket  ot  ^ebbliB.         25 

prehend  our  being  in  a  mood  entirely 
different  from  the  one  in  which  we  are. 

Prayer  and  air. 

Prayers  which  are  inaudible,  are 
naturally  best  adapted  for  the  hearing 
of  the  Invisible  :  yet  the  air  being  also 
His,  it  is  natural  that  this  also  should 
vibrate  with  the  voice  of  prayer. 

A  sonnet. 

Some  bird  is  warbling  for  my  joy — but 

where 
I  weet  not :  wistfully  I  gaze 
Through  all  the  tremulous  rounds  of 

leafage  there ; 
All  ear  and  eye  about  me,  lo  !  I  raise 
Peering  enquiryfor  myfount  of  praise- 
That  half-articulate  sonneter,  too  rare 
To  be  commended  in  elaboured  lays  : — 
Ah  me  !  I  fail  to  find  her  anywhere— 


26  ^ifkings  ftom 


Blest  could  I  know  who  blesses  me. — 
'Tis  so 

I  prove  the  sweet  effects  of  some  kind 
soul. 

Whose  wishes  waft  about  me  as  I  go  ; 

I  feel  some  hidden  help  doth  make  me 
whole. 

How  like  that  sightless  song  this  sound- 
less prayer ! 

Some  one  is  praying  for  me  : — tell  me, 
where  ? 

A  proverb  to  be  put  out. 

Take  care  of  the  proverb  "  Wherever 
there  is  smoke,  there  is  fire "  ; — That 
smoke  very  often  arises  from  that  little 
member  which  is  set  on  fire  of  hell. 

The  best  walk  and  the  highest 
talk. 

"  Lord,  teach  us  to  pray"  did  not 
merely  mean  "give  us  words  to  say". 


•    Jl  ^ockft  of  Pebbles.         27 

but  "teach  us  what  it  is,  in  the  heat  of 
the  day,  among  the  trees  of  this  re- 
gained garden,  to  walk  and  to  talk 
with  our  Father". 

Advantage  of  a  mean,    but   no 
mean   advantage. 

in  matters  of  marked  import,  most 
successful  lines  of  vigorous  action,  at 
least  in  gentle  minds,  are  a  mean  be- 
tween diffidence  and  dash. 

"  I  know  not  seems". 

Be  very  careful  to  accommodate 
your  modes  of  thought  and  your  views 
of  personal  ambition,  not  to  what  this  or 
that  person  thinks  "  high  "  or  "  low", 
but  to  what  is  high  and  low,  true  and 
false,  and  the  like.  "  Nearer  my  God 
to  Thee"— this  must  be  our  motto. 


28  ^irkmgg  from 


Of  limits  of  ambition. 

How  are  we  to  regard  that  which  we 
have  not,  but  which  we  think  it  would 
be  good  for  us  to  have?  All  such 
things  from  lowest  to  highest  come 
under  the  same  rule.  That  rule  is 
quite  clear.  We  must  not  fasten  our 
minds  on  anything,  except  habits  of 
excellence,  and  say,  "I  mean  to  attain 
that,  come  what  may".  It  is  unrestful, 
and  in  some  degree  dangerous — I  do  not 
say  always  irreligious,  but  dangerous 
—even  with  respect  to  a  lawful  object 
of  ambition,  to  fix  our  gaze  on  it  and 
go  throughya^  to  get  it;  for  the  tempta- 
tion may  be  sore  to  go  through  7i.e/as 
also.  Not  but  what  a  man  may  be  so 
penetrated  with  a  sense  of  his  powers 
that  he  may  be  convinced,  and  in  some  ■ 
sort  may  feel  inspired  with  the  convic- 


^  ^ofkrt  of  ^ehblcs.  29 


tion,  that  to  work  them  in  some  unat- 
tained  sphere  may  be  his  duty.  But  to 
live  rightly  under  this  conviction,  and 
amidst  these  endeavours  to  rest  in 
faith,  requires  constant  watchfulness. 
A  man  must  be  very  careful  not  to  form 
any  fixed  idea  that  God  wants  him  for 
any  special  work.  If  the  work  is  mani- 
festly to  be  done  and  nobody  else  can 
do  it — especially  if  it  be  near  at  hand, 
and  the  time  for  its  doing  be  passing  or 
about  to  pass — then  in  God's  name  let 
him  "go  gallantly  on",  as  Chevalier 
Bunsen,  Arnold's  friend,  told  me  he 
had  said  to  Florence  Nightingale;  but 
even  then  let  him  be  humbly  prepared 
at  any  moment  to  find  the  cup  of  his 
purpose  suddenly  put  aside  from  his 
lips.  Many,  as  the  man  I  have  last 
named,  have  come  to  the  edge  of  their 
hopes  of  great  work,  and  had  but  a 


30  ^irfeittQs  fcom 


peep  into  the  land  where  other  men 
were  to  enter  into  their  labours.  But 
these  high  examples  go  beyond  my 
original  purpose.  I  began  to  write 
this  rather  that  by  help  of  God  I  might 
clear  and  establish  what  has  to  be  said 
about  the  hopes  and  desires  of  common 
life.  Suppose  I  see  before  me  or  beside 
me,  but  not  within  my  reasonable 
reach,  a  condition  which  commends 
itself  to  my  imagination  as  highly 
adapted  to  my  powers  and  mj'  tastes. 
The  fact  that  this  seevis  so  is  to  be  en- 
tirely merged,  drowned,  and  lost  in  the 
fact  that  it  is  not  within  my  reach. 
Circumstances  stand  round  me  and 
sever  me  from  that  object  of  my  wishes. 
God  makes  them  stand  there.  What 
seems  is  imagination,  however  vivid  it 
may  be.  All  that  lies  in  the  land  of 
uncertainty.     It  may  be  a  ghost.     It 


^  ^otktt  of  Nibbles.  31 

may  be  a  picture  painted  by  the  devil. 
Indeed,  being  clean  contrary  to  what 
God  allows  to  me,  it  is  most  probable, 
nay  I  may  say  certain,  that  it  is  one 
of  the  Jaia  Morgana,  one  of  those 
mephitic  ignesfatui,  called  up  by  the 
foul  fiend  in  the  bad  air  of  selfishness  ; 
an  image,  or  child  of  desire,  which  has 
nothing  to  do  with  my  Father  and  my 
God — except  to  flout  and  oppose  His 
omniscient  love  for  me.  To  hanker 
after  it  were  vanity  ;  to  follow  it,  in- 
sanity. 

Vice  is  its  own  reward. 

One  of  the  most  fearful  ways  by 
which  you  can  deteriorate,  is  by  think- 
ing other  people  bad,  especially  the 
other  sex.  If  you  hold  an  idea  that 
they  are  mostly  given  up  to  sin  and 
are  careless  of  character,  as  some  love 


32  ^pickings  from 


to  maintain,  your  soul  is  apt  to  come 
crushing  down  like  a  house  with  dry- 
rot  ;  or  like  the  lungs  of  a  man  long 
diseased,  that  slough  off  into  cavernous 
death. 

Love-couplet. 

Those  whom  love  couples  love  will  hold 

so  fast, 
That  love  at  first  will  still  be  love  at 

last. 

TTOV    (TTbi; 

The  worst  part  of  your  becoming 
worse  is  if  you  do  not  know  it.  If  you 
light  upon  some  old  friend,  or  find 
some  piece  of  writing  of  your  better 
days,  it  is  melancholy  if  you  are  smitten 
with  the  sense — quajttuin  mutatus  ab 
illo.  Vet  you  may  indeed  bethink  you 
for  your  comfort,  that  in  other  ways 


Si  pocket  of  ^itbles.         33 

you  may  be  changing  for  the  better. 
What  however  is  the  set  of  the  main 
current  of  your  being  ? 

A  root  question. 

Which  begins  first,  faith  or  know- 
ledge—who can  say  ?  With  children, 
probably_/ie:zV/* ;  but  to  a  man  who  has 
grown  up — I  mean  down — into  ignor- 
ance of  God,  the  noting  of  some  fact,  or 
the  attaining  some  piece  of  knowledge 
about  Him  may  be  accompanied  by 
belief  in  the  way  of  simultaneity.  Then, 
believing  that  He  is,  you  find,  by  dili- 
gently seeking  Him,  your  knowledge 
growing.  But  to  know  Him  is  to  love 
Him.  This  is  to  be  at  peace.  Amidst 
pains  and  distresses  of  body,  mind,  and 
estate,  notwithstanding  all  passing 
changes,  you  rest  on  the  Eternal.  No- 
body fully  believes  this  to  be  so,  till  he 
3 


34  pickings  from 


finds  it  to  be  so.  Everj'body  who  finds  it 
to  be  so  "  believes".  All  men  may  find  it 
to  be  so  whom  we  rightly  call  "  good  " 
— for  reverence  enters  into  our  idea  of 
goodness.  The  existence  of  the  Father 
can  however  be  arrived  at  both  by 
analysis  and  synthesis.  Every  exam- 
ined detail  leads  you  up  to  God,  Whom 
hitherto  you  knew  not ;  and  taking 
God  for  the  foundation  and  starting 
point  of  observation,  knowing  in  Whom 
you  believe,  you  descend  to  the  details 
of  creation  and  providence  by  the  same 
chain  by  which  you  might,  logically 
speaking,  have  up-clomb.  Morally 
speaking,  can  the  soul  climb  without 
some  sort  of  behef  ?  that  is  the  ques- 
tion. It  is  akin  to  that  enquiry  as  to 
the  priority,  connateness,  or  posteri- 
ority of  matter  or  of  spirit,  which  is 
among  the  things  above  proof.     Here 


31  ^orket  of  pebbles.         35 


faith  answers  In  the  analogy  to  spirit ; 
the  appreciation  of  fact,  to  matter.  It 
is  true  that  the  "honest  and  good 
heart "  will,  either  immediately  or  medi- 
ately, reach  God  ;  but  then  that  honest 
and  good  heart  is  not  wholly  ignorant 
of  God  to  begin  with.  Such  a  heart, 
like  the  sound  syllogism,  involves  the 
Petitio  Principii ;  only,  instead  of 
reaching  his  Universal  through  an 
enumeration  of  particulars,  a  process 
not  applicable  here,  he  finds  Him  by  an 
examination  of  the  one  great  crucial 
instance  Himself. 

Of  Traitors. 

For  thirty  pieces  of  silver  Judas  sold 
his  Saviour  to  the  Priests,  and  himself 
to  the  devil.  The  whole  spiritual  world 
seemed  nothing  to  him,  and  a  little 
hard  cash  seemed  everything.     When 


36  pickings  from 


it  was  too  late,  he  saw  it  all.  This  was 
not  an  exceptional  sin,  save  incidentally. 
It  is  so  with  all  sin.  Every  man  who 
prefers  pleasure  to  duty  is  of  the  com- 
pany of  Judas.  It  is  only  in  circum- 
stantial detail  that  he  is  less  infamous. 

From  bad  to  worse. 

It  may  indeed  not  be  good  for  a  man 
to  be  alone— but  that  is  infinitely  better 
than  being  with  any  one  with  whom  he 
ought  not  to  be  ! 

The  requisite  for  spiritual 
students. 

Dr.  Koelle,  author  of  the  Polyglotta 
A/rtcatta,  tells  me  that,  when  he  learns 
a  new  language — which  at  one  time 
was  about  once  a  week— he  begins  by 
writing  its  grammar.  So,  let  the  man 
who  wishes  to  cultivate  the  spiritual 


^  J^ocket  of  ^tbbhs.         37 

life  study  the  laws  thereof  for  himself. 
He  must  not  simply  go  upon  books  of 
devotion  made  by  others,  though  upon 
these  he  may  well  lean,  as  when  a 
person  learns  to  skate.  Indeed  all  the 
best  men  and  women  maintain  their 
most  advanced  spiritual  life  by  feeding 
on  such  diet,  especially  on  the  highest 
fare  which  is  before  them.  What  I 
here  lay  stress  upon  is,  that  the  life  of 
the  spirit  cannot  be  learned  by  merely 
paying  attention  to  what  is  outside  our 
own  soul.  Spiritual  life  cannot  be 
duly  appreciated  as  knowledge  by  the 
student  who  is  not  of  a  nature  to  re- 
ceive it.  This  is  why  men  merely 
scientific  fail  to  see  the  beauty  and 
truth  of  Christianity.  They  bring  to 
the  examination  of  the  highest  phe- 
nomena only  the  same  kind  of  eye 
which  serves  them  in  the  lower.     They 


38  pickings  from 

see  nothing,  and  then  employ  the 
authority  of  their  deserved  eminence  in 
"science"  to  persuade  men  that  there 
is  nothing  farther  to  see  !  As  for  those 
who  look  to  thevi  for  guidance  in 
matters  higher  than  apes  and  acids, 
motes  and  moths,  embryos  and  gases, 
we  know  that  "  if  the  blind  lead  the 
blind,  both  shall  fall  into  the  ditch  "  ; — 
and  the  sooner  the  better  for  the  world 
— I  do  not  say  for  themselves. 

A  greater  than  David  is  here. 

When  the  Psalmist  says  "  Shall  the 
dead  rise  up  and  praise  Thee?"  in 
Christ's  name,  and  in  the  light  of  His 
love,  we  thankfully  answer  '■'yes".  If 
the  Psalmist,  even  without  our  experi- 
ence and  our  additional  ground  of  faith, 
found  in  that  limited  trust  in  his  God 
enough  to  live  upon,  how  much  more 


^  ^orket  of  pebbles.         39 


ought  7ve  gratefully  to  feel,  that  in  this 
House  of  our  Father,  which  the  Son  hath 
prepared  for  us,  we  "  have  enough  and 
to  spare  ". 

"Wherefore  deal  ye  so  madly?" 

In  religion  it  mostly  is,  as  in  philo- 
sophy it  always  has  been,  that  men  get 
hold  of  a  set  of  theories,  chop  them  into 
hard  phrases,  boil  them  up  with  verbi- 
age, and  ladle  out  their  stuff  to  those 
that  live  on  it.  One  party  cries 
"  Church,  Church,"  when  they  have 
no  Church,  or  only  a  formal  one. 
Another  commonly  disports  itself  in 
dilating  upon  high-sounding  abstrac- 
tions. It  seems  to  me  that  our  teach- 
ing should  first  seek  to  impart  or 
revive  the  seed  of  new  life,  and  then  to 
tackle  with  the  facts  and  puzzles  of  the 
heart   and   conscience,    bringing    the 


4Q  ^ickittQs  from 

healing  power  to  bear  on  these,  one 
by  one.  Face  the  special  malady : — 
"  Where  does  the  pain  lie  ?  what  is  its 
cause?"  That  being  discovered,  rise 
to  your  special  cure,  your  special  text, 
your  special  truth — your  theory,  if  you 
have  got  one  for  the  occasion.  Other- 
wise theoretic  preaching  too  often  flies 
in  the  air.  Not  but  what  it  is  whole- 
some to  expatiate  with  reverent  love  on 
the  high  and  grand  graces  and  virtues 
of  the  absolutely  divine  life,  and  to 
"  reason  well  on  immortality".  This  is 
true  philosophy,  though  not  to  be  used 
to  the  exclusion,  of  the  more  special 
and  practical  teaching  of  which  I  have 
spoken.  The  other  mode  is  not  philo- 
'  sophy  in  any  sense.  It  often  works 
upon  a  bargain  supposed  to  have 
been  gone  through  by  the  Eternal 
Father  and  Jesus,  in  a  manner  far  more 


^  pocket  of  ■^ebbhs.         42 


nauseating,  if  possible,  than  those  other 
modes  of  treating  religious  questions, 
to  which  some  objections  are  partially 
reasonable. 

"  Flentibus  adflent". 

Our  power  of  overcoming  evil  by 
good  depends  mainly  on  our  power  of 
compassion. 

Of  the  circle. 

The  order  of  our  physical  cosmos, 
as  you  would  expect  from  the  unity  of 
God,  finds  a  parallel  in  our  moral  life. 
In  both,  order  is  preserved  by  a  com- 
bination of  movements.  The  move- 
ment of  the  earth  round  the  sun  is 
arranged  co-ordinately  with  its  motion 
round  its  axis.  The  result  of  these 
combined  movements  is  the  sensation 
of  repose.     So  in   morals  there   is  a 


42  ^ifkings  front 

general  law  of  right  under  which 
human  spirits  revolve.  But  there  is 
also  a  social  law,  and  there  are  obliga- 
tions varying  with  the  individual, 
which  serve  as  a  compensative  check, 
and  so  preserve  society  in  courses 
which  are  fairly  even,  and  which  ap- 
proximate to  the  perfect  figure. 

Of  the  law  of  force  and  the 
force  of  law. 

When  once  you  resign  yourself  to 
the  fancy  that  you  "  cannot  help  it"  ; 
when  once  you  let  a  phantasy  of  neces- 
sity jump  on  your  back  and  throw  a 
bit  into  your  jaws  :  when  you  begin  to 
breathe  that  impious  and  blasphemous 
thought — then  there  is  no  recklessness 
into  which  you  are  not  ready  to  plunge. 
That  base  and  scheming  and  miserable 
stroke  of  madness  dashes  you   aside 


31  pocket  of  pebbles.         43 

from  the  right  path.  It  is  the  origin  of 
what  is  evil  to  you,  and  makes  you 
bold  for  any  wrong.  Take  care  you 
do  not  say,  "  I  can't  help  it."  Even  if 
you  feel  disposed  to  say  it  about  little 
things  which  are  apparently  irrelevant 
to  morals,  you  must  suspect  danger. 
Nothing  in  fact  with  which  will  is  con- 
cerned z's  irrelevant  to  moral  life.  Note 
the  little  speck  within  your  fruit,  the 
little  rift  in  the  instrument  of  j'our  life's 
music.  Will  is  Will,  whatever  be  the 
matter  on  which  it  be  called  to  work  ; 
and  if  it  is  allowed  to  be  weak  in  some 
small  thing  to-day,  the  plague  is  begun, 
and  you  form  a  precedent  for  avowing 
helplessness  in  some  greater  thing  to- 
morrow. He  that  admits  weakness  in 
one  point  is  potentially  impotent  in  all. 
Sceiui  intra  se  tacite quicogitat-ullion, 
Facti primmn  habet.    This  will-weak- 


44  pickings  fxom 


ness  opens  the  door  to  indefinite  crime. 
What  but  "  T/iy  will  be  done  "  can 
secure  us  ?  In  the  recognition  of  God's 
will  as  permanent  within  us  our 
strength  is  found.  It  was  not  mock- 
humilit3%  but  sober  common  sense  and 
a  clear  perception  of  causes  and  se- 
quences, which  led  that  holy  man  to 
say  when  he  saw  a  felon  going  to 
Tyburn,  "But  for  the  grace  of  God 
there  goes  John  Bradford." 

Of  garden  gates. 

Oh  young  man,  leave  not  open  the 
garden-gate  of  your  heart  for  the  swine 
to  come  in  and  trample  down  the 
rtower-beds  of  the  graces  of  your  God  ! 

Of  unsettled  lees. 

When  good  men  move  about  too 
much  and  pass  to  and  fro  among  in- 
citements to  pleasure,  it  is  as  when  a 


31  Rochet  ot  pebbles.         45 


bottle  of  good  wine  is  shaken.  Thus  the 
dregs  and  lees  of  the  soul  make  the  life 
cloudy. 

Of  an  old  watch. 

Abstract  yourself  for  a  moment,  with 
5'our  watch  in  your  hand,  from  this 
beautiful  order  in  which  you  live,  and 
move,  and  are.  Imagine  yourself 
walking  on  the  high  places  of  heaven, 
in  some  place  which  is  not  as  a  place, 
some  state  or  condition  in  which  you 
can  see  the  universe  lying  at  your  feet. 
It  is  better  thus  to  abstract  yourself, 
for  otherwise  you  form  part  of  the 
argument,  and  this  does  not  minister 
to  lucidity.  But  say  you  see,  both  in 
its  broad  working  and  in  its  delicate 
details  of  order  and  law,  the  Universe 
at  your  feet.  Except  you  have  carried 
with  you  the  doubts  of  carnal  question- 


46  pickings  front 


ists,  would  it  not  at  once  strike  you 
that  what  you  see  must  have  come  into 
existence  as  much  by  will  and  purpose 
and  personal  intervention  as  the  watch 
which  you  hold  in  your  hand  ?  This  is 
an  old  image,  but  it  bears  dwelling  on. 
If  that  watch  was  contrived  by  a  mind, 
so  surely  also  was  that  Universe. 
Moreover,  as  a  man  constructed  the 
parts  of  the  watch,  and  brought  them 
under  the  condition  of  the  natural  laws 
of  motion,  so  it  must  have  been  some- 
one like  man— or  rather  someone  to 
whom  man  is  like — some  Personage, 
Who  gave  life  within  itself  to  the  uni- 
verse, as  to  one  infinite  living  creature. 
And  if  this  be  true  of  the  outside  world 
of  matter,  shall  not  the  observer,  when 
he  goes  back  again  in  thought  to  his 
own  place  in  that  universe,  argue 
much  more  clearly  and  certainly  the 


Jl  pocket  of  pebbles.         47 


same  origin  for  himself— namely,  a 
Personal  Will  ?  If  a  man  dwells  in  the 
body  of  dust,  and  yet  is  not  of  it,  so 
God,  while  independent  of  the  uni- 
verse, may  still  be  in  it  and  give  it  life. 
God  animates  the  body  of  the  universe, 
in  all  its  ranges,  just  as  a  man's  spirit, 
indivisible  and  invisible,  animates  the 
body  of  a  man.  The  fact  that  the  seen 
part  of  a  man  becomes  unseen — without, 
as  we  believe,  carrying  into  death  that 
part  of  him  which  has  made  the  body 
seem  for  a  time  to  have  life  in  itself— 
looks  like  a  prophecy  that  the  "unseen 
universe "  will  survive  the  universe 
which  in  part  is  seen. 

"Things  are  not  what  they 
seem". 

Falsehood  can  never  dg  an  aspect  of 
truth. 


48  IPirkings  front 


An  "a  fortiori"  receptivity. 

If  willing  in  the  day  of  our  Maker's 
power,  shall  we  not  much  more  be 
willing  in  the  day  of  our  Father's 
love  ? 

"Voces  repercussse". 
Prayer  and  its  answer  are,  for  in- 
stantaneous and  exact  response,  like 
the  voice  and  its  echo  against  that 
great  Rock,  under  which  we  find 
shadow  and  shelter  in  this  weary  land. 
The  words  of  prevailing  prayer  come 
back  upon  the  soul  in  an  answer  of 
rejoicing  praise.  "When  I  called, 
Thou  didst  answer :  and  when  I  was 
yet  speaking,  Thou  didst  hear  ".  The 
reflection  is  however  sometimes  clearer 
in  the  waters  of  the  soul  than  that 
which  is  reflected,  and  the  echo 
sweeter  than  the  parent  sound — mostly 


^  ^orket  of  pebbles.         49 

multiplying  itself  with    "re-sounding 
grace". 

A  word  of  a  body-doctor. 

Business  is  a  kind  of  material  body, 
without  which  the  spiritual  life  is  a 
kind  of  ghost.  In  the  perfect  life  they 
are  essential  to  each  other.  Business, 
whatever  attaches  to  each  man's  posi- 
tion, is  dead,  if  a  man's  spirit  do  not 
animate  it.  This  spirit  however,  if  it 
have  no  body  to  animate,  has  but  a 
shadowy  life.  So  also  material  pos- 
session, or  the  fair  power  of  obtaining 
food,  raiment,  and  roof,  forms  that 
corporeal  substance  and  local  habita- 
tion, without  which  the  spirit  of  love, 
however  quick  and  fresh,  is  but  an  airy- 
nothingness  flying  between  the  cold 
moon  and  the  earth. 
4 


so  pickings  from 


Of  "  promoters". 

People  who  float  a  worldly  enterprise 
by  which  they  hope  to  gain  advantage 
through  the  utiHsing  of  other  people, 
commonly  keep  a  private  boat  swing- 
ing astern. 

A  form  of  conversion. 

In  proportion  as  the  truth  makes 
men  free,  freedom  will  make  men 
truthful. 

Pshaw  !  pah  !  fie ! 
I  was  reading  a  book  full  of  fine 
writing  and  vivid  picturing,  but  every 
here  and  there  I  became  aware  of  a 
smell  of  sulphur  in  it  :  something  like 
the  whiffs  which  puff  before  your  nose 
and  eyes  as  you  are  contemplating  a 
beautiful  view  out  of  the  window  of  a 
railway  carriage.     No  young  person  in 


51  ^3ackct  of  pebbles.         51 


these  days  should  pick  up  books  at  hap- 
hazard. They  should  seek  good  ad- 
vice as  to  what  they  read.  He  who 
said  "  Take  heed  how  ye  hear",  would 
also  say  "Take  heed  how  ye  read". 
There  may  be  moral  death  in  those 
currents  of  bad  air.  The  modesty  of 
a  life  may  wither  in  an  hour. 

"Natura  recurret." 

If  a  man,  through  mistaken  kindness, 
be  elevated  to  great  offices,  and  even 
though  these  offices  involve  dignity, 
emolument,  and  the  sahitari,  appeti, 
decedi,  asszirgi,  dedtici,  reditci,  consuli, 
and  the  like  honours— yet  if,  having 
some  genuine  and  special  gift,  he  finds 
in  this  post  no  scope  to  put  it  out  to 
the  exchangers,  he  is  not  rightly  happy  ; 
but  he  is  apt  to  be  ill  at  ease,  discon- 
tented, and  at  last  to  flag. 


52  firkin gs  fvom 


Of  an  octopus. 

If  o'er  thee  little  sins  have  taken  hold, 
Take  heed— or  else  thine  end  may  soon 
be  told. 

Of  a  law  of  disease. 

As  "to  the  pure  all  things  are  pure  ", 
so  to  the  impure  all  things  are  impure. 
Quantum  in  ccelum,  tantuin  in  Tar- 
tar a. 

"  Amo,  amas,  amat,  et  cetera." 

A  BROKEN  PEBBLE. 

*  4f-  *  * 

Then  all  the  phases,  told  a  thousand 

times 
By  tongue,  or  pen,  or  scene ; — yet  ever 

new, 
And  rife  with  wise  concern  to  all  that 

live. 


31  pocket  cf  J^zbbles.         53 


For  who  that  lives  but  knows  so^fie 

mood  and  tense, 
Learned  off  by  heart  in  this   world's 

public  school— 
If   not  the   present — i/uii  is  best   to 

know, 
Most  if  indicative,  no  doubt  subjoined— 
Perhaps  the  past,   finished  or  still  in 

course, 
A  preterite  indefinite,  with  a  hope— 
Or,  it  may  be,  the  future,  with  a  glance 
Of  foolish  wisdom  at  the  future  done — 
All,  all  have  learned,  or  else  may  come 

to  learn. 
Some  mood  and  tense  of  that  old  verb, 

"  to  love." 

Single  thought,  social  crime. 

Bring  vividly  before  your  mind  any 
practical  moral  difficulty.  The  course 
of  your  probation,  say,  brings  you  into 


54  59i<^liJ't9s  from 


a  certain  crisis.  These  crises  may  be 
i^reater  or  less,  but  no  crisis  is  unim- 
portant. Such  perplexities  form  part 
of  the  holy  war  of  our  life.  Every 
man  has  them,  more  or  less  ;  and  it  is 
futile  to  say  that  your  circumstances 
differ  from  those  of  other  people :  nay, 
it  is  highly  dangerous  to  say  so,  for 
your  ne.xt  step  is  to  try  and  get  out  of 
your  difficulty  by  some  way  by  which 
other  people's  consciences  do  not  allow 
them  to  get  out  of  theirs.'  You  are 
tempted  to  argue,  "  If  my  difficulty  is 
an  exception,  my  escape  may  perhaps 
also  be  excused  if  it  be  exceptional  "  ; 
and  that  means  sin.  So  put  away  at 
once  and  for  ever  the  idea  that  your 
situatio7i  differs  essentially  from  that 
in  which  most  people  are  placed.  You 
do  not  know,  and  cannot  guess,  how 
many   good    Christians   are    manfully 


31  13ock£t  of  ?3fbbU0.         55 


struggling  through  equal  misfortune. 
Well — you  want  a  solution — ease,  rest, 
in  short  covifort.  You  desire  to  fol- 
low some  particular  course  suited  to 
your  mind.  It  is  natural  you  should 
thus  wish,  especially  if  that  course  be 
one  in  itself  right ;  but  does  God  make 
it  right  for  you  ?  This  reservation  is 
so  important  that  it  is  wrong,  however 
natural  it  may  in  this  case  seem,  to 
desire  anything  except  broadly  and 
unreservedly  God's  will  as  expressed 
in  His  known  commands.  No  man  is 
in  a  safe  or  wholesome  condition  who 
writhes  under  his  cross.  The  only 
wholesome  tone  of  heart  is  "  Thy  will 
be  done  ;  I  desire  nothing  but  thine 
arrangement,  O  God  my  Father". 
This  principle  or  feeling,  and  nothing 
else,  working  in  the  soul  can  draw  us 
back,   by   the   constraining   love   and 


56  pickings  from 

grace  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ  and  God, 
from  the  fearful  gulfs  of  crime  or  death 
which  lie  between  us  and  the  objects  to 
which  we  are  being  drawn,  when  we 
over-strongly  desire  a  rest  which  our 
Father  is  not  yet  pleased  to  give  us. 
Our  rest  must,  I  say,  lie  in  the  doing 
and  abiding  of  God's  will. 

A  feeling  after  God. 

' '  I  will  at  once  set  my  will  to  work 
to  resist  this  desire  of  being  idle." 
What  is  the  /  here  ?  Is  "  /  "  the  will 
itself?  or  is  it  an  "  I  "  behind  the  will  ? 
01  again,  is  it  a  name  given  to  distinct 
parts  of  the  being,  as  each  from  time 
to  time  comes  forward  in  dominance  or 
prominence?  or  does  it  represent  the 
composite  being  ?  If  this  last  be  the 
case,  then  you  mean  that  the  whole  of 
you,  namely  j/ou,  will  set  to  v/ork,  or 


Jl  ^ocktt  of  l^tbhhs.         57 


set  your  will  to  work,  to  resist  that  part 
of  you  which  desires  to  be  idle  ?  But 
in  this  case  the  part  which  desires  to 
be  idle  will  take  part  with  "  you  "  in 
your  whole  against  itself  as  a  part,  and 
set  the  will  to  work  against  itself ! 
This  will  not  hold.  So  does  the  matter 
resolve  itself  to  a  struggle  between  you 
and  this  desire  ?  Desire  says,  "  You 
shall  not  set  will  to  work  to  keep  me 
down."  But  your  very  complaint  is, 
that  desire  is  an  overpowering  element 
in  you.  Desire  bribes  and  buys  up  the 
will.  So  we  have  not  yet  found  what, 
behind  the  overpowered  will,  is  the 
"  I"  that  can  renew  its  strength.  Does 
not  "  I "  mean  the  divine  Sovereign 
Power  whom  I  recognise  in  my  island 
of  life,  and  in  virtue  of  which  I  partake 
of  the  Divine  Nature  ?  Therefore  do 
you  not  mean  to  say  "  I  will,  in  God's 


58  ^trhings  from 


name,  set  in  motion  this  inner  agency, 
namely  my  will,  to  subdue  that  rebel 
desire  "  ?  Thus  it  is  that  the  voice  of 
God  speaks  within  you.  What,  I 
should  like  to  know,  is  a  man,  who  does 
not  recognise  that  Power  resident  in 
his  life,  to  do,  while  under  the  super- 
human strain  of  a  conjuncture  of  temp- 
tations? What  is  left  for  him  but  to 
fall?  "Lord,  to  whom  shall  we  go? 
Thou  only  hast  the  words  of  eternal 
life  ". 

What  should  I  seek  beside  thy 
perfect  will  ? 
We  must  not  make  anything,  even 
peace  and  a  wholesome  moral  atmos- 
phere, however  much  to  be  desired,  a 
sine  qti&  non  in  our  demands  on  Provi- 
dence. We  must  not  imagine  any 
demands  at  all,  but  must  keep  a  tabula 


^  ^ocktt  of  ^fbblcs.         59 

rasa  of  all  our  personal  wishes.  We 
must  find  our  only  rest  in  "Thy  will 
be  done  ",  and  thus  calmly  face  what- 
ever demands  upon  our  action  or  our 
endurance  the  solemn  hours  and  the 
holy  moments  may  bring  us.  This 
obedience  unto  death  is  the  only  spirit 
which  befits  those  engaged,  as  we  are, 
to  fight  under  the  banner  of  Christ. 

Of  flowing   drapery. 

Except  "principle",  there  ought  to 
be  nothing  hard  and  fast  in  humanity. 
All  rules  relating  to  our  dealing  there- 
with ought  to  fit  to  it  like  a  Coan  vest. 
Our  rules  ought  to  enswathe  it  as  the 
atmosphere  invests  the  earth.  The 
free  play  of  the  winds  of  feeling  ought 
to  curve  our  conduct  about  all  its 
beautiful  forms,  lest  they  be  hidden 
and   cramped.      We   are   not   dealing 


6o  ^kkings  from 

with  necessary  matter,  nor  with  things 
demanding  or  always  admitting  rigid 
demonstration  or  fixed  application ; 
we  must  measure  at  least  many  human 
cases  with  a  ruler  of  lead,  showing  all 
the  contours  of  their  waved  moulding  ; 
not  so  much  with  inflexible  justice  as 
with  the  equity  of  kindly  sympathy; 
with  that  equity  which,  as  one  has  well 
said,  is  not  better  than  justice,  but  a 
better  justice.  Fair  play  is  indeed  a 
jewel. 

Another  small  pebble— for  the 
pocket. 

It  will  not  ruin  thee  this  sum  to  lack, 
Which  it  would  ruin  hint  to  pay  thee 
back  ! 

Of  tuning  an  instrument. 

It  is  one  of  the  largest,  most  interest- 
ing, and  most  practical  questions,  how 


31  ^ocktt  of  laehbks.  61 

the  parts  of  the  life  may  co-operate. 
It  should  be  a  standing  topic  for 
preachers ;  but  it  requires  the  utmost 
wisdom  and  delicacy.  It  embraces  all 
gospel-teaching.  Men  in  possession 
of  the  seed  of  the  Christ-Spirit  may 
convert  souls,  which  is  the  first  and 
main  thing,  but  to  guide  the  details  of 
the  Christian  life,  and  to  treat  cases  of 
conscience,  surely  requires  also  the 
highest  culture. 

Of  weighing  anchor. 
It  is  most  unwise  to  let  ourselves  be 
brought  to  anchor  by  any  gloomy 
thoughts.  Anybody  may  do  so  who  is 
silly  enough  for  it.  Reckon  over  the 
things  that  have  happened  to  you, 
except  you  have  been  unusually  fortu- 
nate, in  the  last  ten  or  twenty  years, 
and  you  may  in  ten  or  twenty  minutes 


62  pickings  from 

come  to  regard  yourself  as  the  most 
ill-used  creature  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.  Losses  of  goods,  real  or  per- 
sonal, in  all  senses  of  the  words — 
repeated  failures  and  countless  disap- 
pointments— why,  if  you  contemplate 
these  "in  the  lump",  and  these  only, 
their  dolorous  aspect  will  soon  colour 
your  eye  ;  and  then  in  what  a  black 
atmosphere  may  you  imagine  yourself 
to  be  living !  But  it  were  an  untrue  esti- 
mate. "  Forget  those  things  which  are 
behind,  and  reach  forth  to  those  things 
\yhich  are  before."  Is  not  the  whole  of 
hope  and  the  whole  of  heaven  before 
you?  Never  dream  that /leaz'eu  need 
be  among  the  things  that  are  left  behind 
you  and  lost !  Be  not  faithless,  but 
believing,  and  then  all  happiness  is 
de/ore  you  and  lies  yet  within  your 
reach.     You   may   yet   be  more  than 


Jl  ^ocktt  of  iBcbblcs.         63 

conqueror  through  Him  that  loves  you 
as  His  own,  and  will  love  you  to  the 
end. 

A  piece  of  spiritual  grammar. 

If  a  Christian  Is  ill— he  is  ill  unto  the 
Lord.  It  Is  as  active  work  to  suffer 
God's  win  as  to  do  It.  The  soul,  like 
the  deponent  verb,  then  wears  a  pas- 
sive form,  but  has  an  active  meaning. 

A  metathesis. 

People  often  confuse  the  casual  and 
the  causal.  In  fact  nothing  is  casual. 
The  best  definition  given  of  chance  is 
"the  absence  of  known  cause." 

The  Judge  before  the  door. 

Let  every  day  be  to  thee  a  day  of 
judgment.  Seek  of  the  scrutinising  and 
trutinising  mercy  of  the  Most  High  to 


64  ?9kktngs  from 


examine  thy  thoughts  day  by  day,  to 
cleanse  thee  from  thy  secret  faults,  and 
to  lead  thee  into  the  land  of  upright- 
ness. Thou  wilt  meet  the  Great  day 
well  if  thou  get  the  Great  Judge  to 
judge  thee  every  day. 

Of  "taking  things  easy". 

Friend,  art  thou  fain  to  lead  a  quiet 

life? 
Bear,  and  forbear,  before  thou  plunge 

in  strife. 

'  fit  TdXT10€S  e|X'7r^4>UK€V  dvOpWTTODV 

(jLcvw. — Soph. 

Remember  that  Jesus,  "  the  same 
yesterday,  to-day,  and  for  ever",  is  not 
responsible  for  any  foolish  things  which 
the  Church  and  the  Churches — still 
less  for  what  wayward  and  irrespon- 


Jl  ^ocktt  of  pebbles.         65 


sible  individuals— from  time  to  time 
may  have  said,  may  be  saying,  or  yet 
may  say. 

"AX€i,  (ivXa,  6Xa  (Greek  song),  or 
"Meunier,  meunier,  ton  moulin 
va  trop  vite". 

A  real  grievance  is  the  only  grist  for 
the  mill  of  discontent.  If  the  grind- 
stones have  nothing  between  them, 
they  grind  themselves  smooth ;  and 
then,  and  not  till  then,  will  the  sound 
of  the  grinding  be  low.  If  they  get 
an  imagined  grievance  between  them, 
"the  common  sense  of  most,"  which 
soon  sees  through  a  millstone,  leaves 
that  business  to  a  few  ;  and  the  charac- 
ter of  these  is  soon  added  up,  and  they 
are  not  long  in  wearing  themselves  out. 
A  wise  legislator  will  keep  removing 
one  after  another  all  reasons  for  indig- 
5 


66  pickings  from 


nation,  and  all  temptations  and  facili- 
ties for  wrong  deeds  and  for  wild  and 
whirling  words ;  and  will,  by  degrees, 
still  the  noise  of  national  waves  and 
the  madness  of  the  people.  Easy-goinj; 
persons  generally  complain  of  nothing— 
when  there  is  nothing  to  complain  of. 

"  Distinguo". 
Ware,  as  a  rule,  the  bearing  of  a  tale  ; — 
But  where  to  tell  were  just,  thou  mui-t 
not  fail. 

A  piece  of  contradictory 
opposition. 

Silence  does  not  give  consent. 

A  piece  of  fairness. 

Be  careful  how  you  regard  your 
heighbour's  character.  With  all  his  low 
habits  he  is,  for  aught  you  know,  con- 


^  Porhtt  of  pebbles.         67 


tending  against  them  more  sincerely  and 
making  head  against  them  more  effectu- 
ally, than  you  are  against  those  which 
may  beset  yourself.  No  one  knows 
the  things  of  a  man,  save  the  spirit  of 
a  man  which  is  in  him,  and — He  who 
knows  what  is  in  man,  and  Who  is  the 
Judge  of  quick  and  dead.  Not  but 
what  there  are  those  who  must  at  once 
be  known  by  their  fruits;  thistles,  from 
which  it  is  plain  that  no  man  can  ever 
gather  figs. 

Of  not  being  left  on  the 
platform. 

However  this  or  that  nation  or  gene- 
ration of  the  Society  of  men  may  deal 
with  their  own  hopes  and  chances  of 
salvation,  God's  Kingdom  must  come, 
and  the  Communion  of  Saints  must  go 
on.     Whoever  else  may  linger,  do  you 


68  ^irkings  from 


jump,    I   tell   you,   into  that  Express 
Train. 

Turning   the    tables    upon 
discontent. 

I  will  not  grieve  that  I  am  thus  bereft. 
But  think  how  ill  I  merit  all  that's  left. 

Take  heed  how  ye— read. 

If  you  have  an  interest  in  your  mind 
and  are  still  training  it,  I  should  advise 
you,  after  j^ou  have  been  reading  about 
a  matter,  to  ask  yourself  before  you 
dismiss  it — first,  how  much  of  what  you 
have  read  is  worth  making  a  part  of 
your  knowledge  :  then,  whether  you 
have  really  made  that  a  part  thereof.  To 
a  reading  age,  the  same  Voice  that  said 
"  For  every  idle  word  that  men  shall 
speak"  would,  I  think,  have  said,  not 
only  "  For  every  idle  word  that  men 


^  pocket  of  pebbles.         69 


and  women  shall  write",  but  also  "  For 
every  idle  book  that  men  and  women 
and  youths  and  maidens  shall  reac/, 
they  shall  give  account  thereof  in  the 
day  of  Judgment".  In  this  matter  of 
"light"  literature  the  Enemy,  be  it  well 
known,  is  very  busy  in  sowing  Tares. 
Every  maiden  should,  and  every  young 
lady  will,  take  the  advice  of  competent 
judges  before  plunging  into  converse, 
for  so  it  is,  with  authors  and  author- 
esses. If  they  do  not  take  care,  the 
reading  of  an  hour  may  poison  the 
sweetness,  and  wither  the  beauty  of  a 
life. 

Of  the  great  gulf. 

It  is  important  not  to  contemplate 
with  the  mind's  eye  the  wrong  pleasure, 
while  it  is  important  to  contemplate 
rather  with  the  spirit's  eye  the  great 


70  ^tckmjjB  from 


gulf  fixed  between  that  false  pleasure 
and  the  true.  That  gulf  may  seem 
narrow,  or  it  may  seem  to  be  no  gulf 
at  all  ;  but  once  leap  at  those  flowers 
of  wild  delight  which  hang  there,  and 
probably  forthwith,  certainly  ere  long, 
you  will  find  yourself,  with  their  few 
leaves  in  your  hot  hands,  tumbling 
headlong  into  the  abyss. 

The  sign  of  the  Cross. 

Christ's  cross  was  mainly  an  outward 
and  visible  sign  of  His  inward  and 
spiritual  pain. 

Of  dark  pools. 

We  stand  now  over  some  of  the 
mysteries  of  Eternity  as  children  that 
look  with  fear  down  into  deep,  dark 
ponds  on  winter  evenings.  On  some 
eternal  summer-day  we  may  pass  by 


^  ^ockit  of  ^fbblfs.         7  c 


that  way  and  find  them  dried  to  the 
abiding  ground,  and  the  mystery  at  an 
end  ! 

Of  travelling. 

When  setting  out  on  a  long  journey 
we  take  much  thought  and  make  much 
preparation.  We  think  of  where  we 
are  going  to,  how  we  shall  get  there, 
what  will  be  needed  for  the  way,  what 
dangers  are  to  be  encountered,  what 
difficulties  to  be  overcome,  what  com- 
panions we  shall  have  with  us,  and 
lastly,  what  requisites  there  are  for  our 
comfortable  continuance  when  we  get 
to  our  journey's  end  and  to  the  place 
where  we  would  be.  In  all  these  re- 
spects the  wise  man  will  look  to  his 
passage  over  the  space  of  time,  how 
wide  or  how  narrow  soever,  which  lies 
between  the  present  moment  and  that 


72  ^ir kings  fxom 


of  "quick-coming  death".  Lord  of 
heaven  and  earth,  to  whom  the  wise 
all  aspire,  in  whose  light  Jesus,  my 
Master,  lived  and  lives,  guide  me  by 
Thy  counsel,  and  after  that  receive  me 
— with  mercy. 

Of  hair-breadth  care. 

It  requires  care,  both  in  State  and 
Church,  to  keep  defence  from  looking 
like  defiance. 

The  unwisdom  of  2000  years. 

Caiaphas  and  the  rest  were  probably 
many  of  them  "  well-meaning "  men, 
"  firm"  men,  men  not  easily  disturbed 
from  their  "consistency";  they  were 
men  of  "settled  convictions,"  "steady 
principles,"  "cautious  men"— in  a  word, 
what  some  unreflecting  people  love  to 
call  "  sound  Churchmen".     Their  sin 


31  ^otkzt  of  f  cbhUs.         73 

was  that  they  thought  they  saw.  They 
simply  regarded  reconsideration  to  be 
a  sin  ;  and,  though  this  was  a  thought  of 
foolishness,  they,  remained  in  the  sin  of 
not  reconsidering.  So  they  tried  to 
put  out  the  Light.  The  same  sin 
keeps  men  now  from  seeing  Who 
Christ  really  is.  The  Saviour  is  thus 
crucified  in  the  Spirit  over  and  over 
again,  in  all  circles," high"  and  "low". 
Indeed,  the  best  are  only  feeling  after 
Him,  with  more  or  less  success,  if  haply 
they  may  find  Him. 

A  transparent  pebble. 

Like  one  that  stands  in  ihe  glow  of 
the  sunrise,  so,  washed  in  the  light  of 
Christ,  we  may  well  lose  much  of  our 
local  colour.  In  Thy  light  we  shall  not 
only  see  light — but  ie  light.  "Be  ye 
light  in  the  Lord." 


74  pickings  from 


An  emigrant  couple. 

Sequestered  from  the  crew,  as  best  they 
may, 

In  sunnj'  nook  beside  the  breezy  prow, 

By  use  of  voyage  made  familiar  now— 

How  sweet  through  all  the  long  Atlan- 
tic day, 

Neath  the  broad  heaven's  shadow- 
shifting  brow 

To  list  the  changeful  waters  in  their 
play— 

Which  falling  off  in  furrows  clear  a 
way, 

While  the  winds  chaunt  as  only  they 
know  how. 

Thrice  blest  to  gaze  into  each  other's 
eyes 

In  idle  interval  of  destinies, 

.'Vnd  read,  as  in  the  volume  of  the  book, 


31  pocket  of  ^ebbks.         75 

Trust  and  dependence  there  in  every 

look; 
To  make  each  other's  breast  by  turns  a 

pillow, 
And  dream  of  golden  homes  beyond 

the  billow. 


(ii.) 

So  love  the  twain,  as  only  those  caa 
know. 

Who,  winged  as  seeds  upon  the  west- 
ward wind, 

The  blue  above  them  and  the  green 
below. 

Fare  forth  with  resolute  heart  and  even 
mind — 

Before  them  ocean,  home  and  friends 
behind. 

They  know  not  rightly  to  what  land 
they  go, 


76  ^ickiiiQS  from 

But    this    at    least    they  know — that 

Heaven  is  kind. 
And  Faith  and  Hope  and  Love  endear 

them  so, 
As  none  can  tell  but  two  such  souls  as 

they— 
And  more  than  e'en  their  own  sweet 

sense  can  say. 
The  uncertain  sea   their  only  known 

abode, 
They  lean  each  on  the  other,  both  on 

God; 
And   all   the  fret  and  change  of  this 

world's  weather 
But  twine  their  twi-une  fates  more  fast 

together. 

Of  speaking  with  authority. 

That  which  gives  authority  in  the 
utterance  of  something  just  and  right, 
or  merciful  and   faithful,   is,   not  the 


51  ?3orket  of  ^rbbks.  77 


adopting  of  this  or  that  formula,  but 
the  expression  of  the  moral  sense  upon 
its  own  knowledge  and  responsibility. 
' '  We  speak  that  we  do  know. "  This 
tells  with  natural  force,  arrests  the 
attention,  and  bites  the  heart.  We  feel 
that  we  are  being  addressed  out  of 
Eternity.  We  hear,  as  Chateaubriand 
somewhere  has  it,  the  sound  of  some- 
thing falling  from  heaven. 

Of  public  schools. 

Children  should  be  given  the  keys  of 
all  knowledge,  and  the  chief  ingredi- 
ents of  things.  They  should  he  put  in 
possession  of  main  ideas  in  accordance 
with  the  most  approved  discoveries,and 
tj'pical  specimens  of  all  the  best  human 
utterances,  not  omitting  those  of  wit  and 
humour.  Each  mental  form  should  be 
rightly  channelled  out.     It  is  surely  a 


78  ^irktngs  from 


great  omission  not  to  teach  in  a  simple 
practical  manner,  if  only  in  illustrative 
conversations,  the  laws  of  thought : — I 
do  not  say  they  need  study  Trendelen- 
burg, or  the  Posterior  Analytics.  But 
in  all,  through  all,  and  above  all — they 
should  have  the  tablets  of  their  hearts 
engraven  with  the  highest  laws,  and 
should  be  taught  God,  Christ,  and  the 
Holy  Spirit,  in  the  conscience.  If  not, 
they  remain  disorderly  apes,  with  the 
dangerous  addition  of  an  "  advanced  " 
intelligence,  and  cultivated  not  only  for 
mischief  but  for  sin. 

Of  a  donkey-cart  and  a  little 
donkey. 

I  once  saw  a  little  child  try  to  wheel 
a  small  donkey-cart.  The  cart  to  his 
surprise  and  joy  went  on  at  a  rapid 
rate.  The  child  crowed  again  with  pride. 


^  J^ochct  ot  ^ebilcs.         79 


It  did  not  see  that  its  Father  was  giv- 
ing it  good  pushes  from  behind!  Nor 
did  the  Father  spoil  the  child's  exulta- 
tion by  disabusing  it  of  the  illusion; 
but  it  was  a  very  little  child — and,  I 
need  hardly  say,  of  no  great  wit. 

"Words,  words,"  "without 
thoughts." 
With  some,  prayer  and  praise  are, 
too  often,  no  more  and  no  less  than 
when  men  say  "bless  your  life  "and 
"good-bye," — which  latter  often  means 
"go  to  the — crows." 

At  sixes  and  sevens. 

One  of  the  saddest  marks  of  disorder 
is,  when  a  man  so  ill  divides  his  time 
that,  whenever  he  would  enjoy  some 
otherwise  legitimate  leisure  and  some 
otherwise  refreshing  pleasure,  he  finds 


8o  tpickiufis  from 

himself  clamoured  after  by  duties  un- 
done. 

Of  soul-talk. 

Always  listen  intently  to  any  sane 
man  who  can  tell  you  what  God  hath 
done  for  his  soul.  There  is  no  topic  of 
such  exciting  and  such  abiding  interest. 
You  are  there  face  to  face  with  eternal 
verities. 

Of  points  of  view. 

Look  at  a  wheat-field  from  all  ways 
but  one,  and  it  will  seem  to  you  sown 
broadcast,  and  you  will  be  less  able  to 
judge  of  its  culture  or  its  produce. 
But  if  you  move  along  till  you  can 
glance  up  the  rows  of  the  drill,  all 
starts  into  order.— How  much  depends 
on  the  point  of  view  from  which  we 


Jl  pocket  of  ^Ebblfs.         8i 

regard  matters.    Look  at  things  Kftder 
the  sun. 

Of  accusing  or  else  excusing 
one  another. 

One  man  accuses,  another  excuses, 
everybody — except  himself.  The  latter 
is  the  more  graceful  character,  but 
'^ est  vtodtis  in  rebus" . 

Of  alternatives. 
Caterpillars,  accustomed  to  one  leaf, 
have  been  known  to  die,  rather  than 
eat  of  another.  I  am  informed  that  in 
the  times  before  the  flood  of  '48  a  little 
German  principality  used  to  kill  its 
criminals  by  giving  them  nothing  but 
veal  and  red  wine.  (I  grant  that  my 
informant  was  a  red  Republican.)  It 
is  clear  that  there  is  much  that  is  mor- 
bid, as  well  as  something  that  may  be 
wholesome,  about  the  desire  in  some 
6 


82  ^kkhtQB  from 


of  us  to  live  upon  the  teaching  of  some 
one  person,  and  so  to  assume  his  colour 
at  the  loss  of  our  own.  God  hath  said 
"of  every  tree  of  the  garden  thou 
mayest  freely  eat " — except  one.  Some 
people  so  entirely  pervert  the  right 
way  of  the  Lord,  that  they  are  wont  to 
eat  of  that  one  only  !    They  surely  die. 

On   the    Prince    Consort— a 

translation. 

"  Redit  OS  placidum  moresque  benigni 

Et  venit  ante  oculos  et  pectore  vivit 

imago. " —  Vergil. 
[Quoted  by  Professor  Sedgwick  at  a  meeting 
in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  in  propos- 
ing a  memorial  for  the  Prince  Consort.] 

Those  kindly  ways,  that  gentle  face 

On  all  our  memories  rise  ; 
His  image  in  our  heart  holds  place. 

And  lives  before  our  eyes. 


^  pocket  of  ^ciblcs.         83 

Of  the  nobly  born. 

In  a  man  of  great  family  and  of  noble 
blood,  these  accidents — if  indeed  thej- 
are  accidents,  and  if  they  do  not  enter 
into  the  essence  of  the  man,  even  as 
the  nature  of  the  oak-tree  pervades 
the  latest  leaf  that  dances  on  its  top- 
most sprig — are  only  ridiculous  if  he 
seem  unduly  to  be  conscious  of  them. 
Everybody  in  his  senses  must  surelj' 
note  that  "  noble  blood"  is  of  a  nature 
to  be  a  blessing.  To  come  of  a  race 
guarded  through  long  generations  from 
the  corroding  causes  which  accompany 
need ;  never  to  have  had  the  flame  of 
genius  repressed,  nor  the  genial  cur- 
rents of  the  family  soul  frozen  by 
penury  ;  always  to  have  had  engrained 
in  the  stock  the  delicate  sensibilities 
and  the  kindly  traditions  of  a  studious 


84  ^jrkings  from 

civility  ;  to  inherit  the  fine  feeling  and 
the  high  honour,  which,  wherever  else 
it  may  be  found,  has  mostly  in  such  a 
family  tree  become  a  second  nature ; 
to  have  enjoyed,  under  wise  tuition, 
from  childhood  up,  the  pabulzan  fur- 
nished by  the  library  of  a  great  and 
good  house  ;  to  have  fed  on  the  cream 
of  the  best  literature  of  all  times  past 
and  present  ;  to  have  had  blowing 
through  his  life — those  winds  of  God — 
the  breathings  of  the  sweetest  poets 
and  the  maxims  of  the  purest  moral- 
ists ;  to  have  assimilated  the  forth- 
flowings  of  the  sublimest  oratory ; 
above  all,  to  have  learned  to  cherish 
noble  traditions  of  the  history  at  once 
of  his  family  and  his  country ;  to 
own  forefathers  who  have  worked  and 
bled  in  the  best  causes  ;  lastly,  to  have 
been  born  and  bred  to  the  manner  of 


3^  ^orhft  of  ^cbblea.         85 


high-minded  statesmanship,  and  thus 
to  have  both  his  inspirations  and  his 
aspirations  of  the  loftiest — I  can  only 
say  that  the  man  who  calls  all  that 
nothing  must  be  a  fool.  Not  but  what 
it  holds  quite  true  that,  if  a  man  with 
all  these  antecedents  be  not  in'  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  the  least  in  that 
Kingdom,  though  he  have  had  none  of 
those  blessings,  has  risen  higher  in  the 
world  than  he. 


The  law  of  eyes. 

The  Gospel  bids  us  be  single-eyed 
— but  not  one-eyed. 

'Twere  better  to  pluck  out  one  eye,  'tis 

true. 
Than    having    two      to     enter     into 

Hell :- 


86  ^icMxtQS  from 


But  then,  to  en  ter  Heaven  keeping  two, 
The  Lord,  methinks,  would  say  were 
quite  as  well. 

A  fortification  agate. 
Tke  spirit  stands  to  its  food  as  the 
mind  to  its  food.  Now  we  observe 
that  the  mind,  like  the  body  in  that, 
thrives  upon  food  convenient  for  it. 
The  more  just  thoughts  of  an  intellec- 
tual nature  the  mind  thinks,  the  more 
sound  books  it  eats,  the  more  argument 
it  exercises,  and  the  more  it  converses 
with  reasonable  men — the  stronger, 
more  active,  and  more  rich  it  grows. 
And  even  though  it  may  rarely  repro- 
duce the  facts  it  learns,  nor  ever  repeat 
the  forms  of  argument  it  has  fed  on, 
yet,  from  the  exercise  it  takes,  and  from 
the  habits  it  forms,  it  is  more  fit  to 
grapple  with  the  difficulties  that  pre- 


Jl  pocket  of  ^fbblJB.         87 


sent  themselves.  Now  so  it  obviously 
must  be  with  the  spirit  of  man .  What 
is  the  food  of  the  spirit  ?  The  things 
of  tJie  Spirit,  above  all,  the  Word  of 
God  ;  holy  thoughts,  wise  sayings, 
high  principles,  and  converse  with 
the  sane  people  of  God.  The  more  it 
feeds  on  these,  the  stronger  it  grows, 
the  loftier  it  is,  the  purer  it  is.  What 
makes  the  spirit  weak  and  sickly  among 
us?  and  why  do  our  spirits  sometimes 
seem  to  fall  into  the  sleep  of  death?  It 
is  surely  from  not  taking  enough  of 
wholesome  food  ;  from  not  reading  or 
hearing  the  Word  of  God  more  ;  from 
not  dwelling  in  the  love  of  our  God 
and  Saviour  more  ;  from  not  quench- 
ing our  thirst  more  at  the  divine 
fountains,  but  rather  quenching  the 
Spirit  by  whom  our  spiritual  thirst 
can  alone  be  quenched  ;  from  not   in 


88  pickings  from 

joyful  regularity  nourishing  our  con- 
science more  with  heavenly  monitions  ; 
from  not  praj'ing  more,  and  not  watch- 
ing more  unto  prayer.  This  it  is 
which  alone  can  keep  down  the  lower 
desires.  If  we  walked  in  the  Spirit 
more,  we  should  fulfil  the  desires  of 
the  flesh  and  of  the  mind  less.  Our 
spirits,  in  fine,  like  our  minds  and  like 
our  bodies,  grow  thin,  withered,  gaunt, 
and  emaciated,  from  not  feeding  more 
freely  on  that  which  is  alone  their 
proper  and  natural  diet.  "  He  that 
eatetk  me,  eve7t  he  shall  live  by 
me.'" 

God's  two  homes. 
Two  homes  h^th  God  from  which  he 

ne'er  will  part — 
The  highest  Heaven,  and  the  humble 

heart. 


31  l3orhct  of  ?9rbbles.         89 

Blow,  blow,  thou  winter  wind. 

Marriages  for  beauty  or  for  wit  are 
like  those  beach-residences,  which, 
being  built  as  summer-houses  for  pass- 
ing lodgers,  give  but  a  windy  shelter 
to  those  who  try  to  live  in  them 
through  the  wild  winter. 

"Abide  with  us."  • 

Lord  Christ,   what— -where   should    I 
have  been — 

Had  it  not  been  for  Thee  ? 
And,  if  Thou  bide  not  by  me  still. 

Where — -what  may  I  not  be  ? 

Of  tolerating  intolerance. 

Toleration  perpetrates  suicide  when 
she  tolerates  within  herself  a  powerful 
Intoleration,  which  is  backed  up  by  all 
the  worst  and  strongest  prejudices  of 
corrupted  humanity. 


go  $)trkirtQs  from 

"Blow  upon  thy  garden    and  let 
the  spices  flow." 

Thy  voice  is  the  mere  melody  of  thy 

heart : — 
Those  sightless  chords— as  some  ^olian 

lyre. 
That  in  confiding  converse  with  the 

air 
Remurmureth  all  the  Heaven's  sweet 

breath  will  bring — 
Are  set  where  dewy  wafts  of  fragrant 

thought 
Thrill  through  them  from  the  garden 

of  thy  God, 
And  lend  them  all  they  say. 


Of  saturate   solution. 

When  the  Scripture  says  "  I  suppose 
the  world  itself  would  not  contain  the 


^  iPocket  of  pebbles.         91 

books  that  should  be  written,"  the  ex- 
pression, except  indeed  it  be  merely  a 
loose  hyperbole,  seems  to  utter  a  sense 
of  that  which  even  now  has  welnigh 
come  about.  Have  not  the  few  seeds 
of  Christ's  remembered  words  already 
multiplied  into  an  almost  infinite  crop 
of  books?  And  do  they  not  still  show 
such  a  geometric  proportion  of  fertility, 
that  no  library  can  hope  to  garner  all 
the  varied  forms  of  life  and  immortality 
which  He  is  bringing  to  light  by  His 
Gospel?  No  man,  however  clear  his 
mind  and  retentive  his  memory,  can 
profess  to  grasp  and  retain  the  whole 
range  of  that  which  is  worth  knowing 
in  Christology ;  to  say  nothing  of  those 
other  regions  of  knowledge  to  which 
the  Truth  that  makes  men  free  is  con- 
stantly drawing  us.  This  interpretation 
makes  it  no  hyperbole  to  say  what  the 


92  ^tckinga  from 


Scripture  says.  Indeed  one  cannot  con- 
ceive that  the  writer,  except  he  simply 
adopted  a  common  expression,  should 
have  had  anything  else  in  his  mind. 
There  can  be  no  other  idea  attached 
to  the  words  save  that  which  I  have 
noted ;  namely  that,  in  the  mental  and 
spiritual  capacity  and  receptivity  of 
the  world,  the  solution  of  the  Christ- 
nature  would  become  more  than  satu- 
rate. What  marvellous  fecundity  there 
is  in  the  Divine  words  !  To  take  one 
out  of  hundreds  of  like  instances,  I 
know  of  a  country  parson — admittedly 
therefore  a  dullard  by  the  force  of  the 
term — who  has  a  small  library  full  of 
Theological  things  well  said,  but  who 
hardly  has  time  to  absorb  and  use  even 
those.  Why  ?  Because,  in  pondering 
merely  the  great  Christian  documents, 
he  finds  so  many  things  to  say,  which 


Jt  pocket  of  pebbles.         93 


simply  flow  through  his  own  narrow  per- 
sonal experience  ofthe  infinite  applica- 
tion of  those  few  sayings  of  The  Master. 
Thus  everyone  who  comes  to  know  any- 
thing of  Christ  finds  that  his  own  little 
world  cannot  contain  even  the  things 
that  Aave  been  written. 

A   prayer. 

O  Maker  of  our  brother-band, 
O  Lover  and  Support  of  all — 

Of  what  should  fall  let  nothing  stand  ; 
Of  what  should  stand  let  nothing  fall. 

"You  must  love  Him,  ere  to  you 
He  will  seem   worthy  of  your 
I  ove. ' ' —  Wordsworth. 
Those  alone  do  not  believe  in  God 

who  do  not  know  him.  Belief  increases 

with  knowledge,  and  knowledge  with 

belief. 


g\  ^ickinQS  from 


A  piece  of  eternal  knowledge. 

Whatever    else    I    know    not,    this    I 

know — 
That  I  am  Thine,  whether  I  stay  or 

go. 

New  found   land. 

What  new  and  pure  delight  will  open 
upon  the  soul,  when  he  enters  his  new 
abode,  and  the  angels  begin  to  show 
him  some  of  the  beauties  that  are  there 
— such  pleasures  at  least  as  he  is  cap- 
able of  in  that  new  infancy  of  his  being. 
How  pleasant  it  is,  when  we  go  into  a 
fresh  country,  or  a  neighbourhood 
grander  or  more  sublime  than  our 
own,  and  take  in  new  ideas.  We 
stand  with  uplifted  eyes  in  moods  of 
attentive  rapture,  amidst  the  valleys 
and  mountains  that  wind  away  and 
rise  to  Heaven  ;  or  if  we  go  into  the 


^  pocket  of  T^tbbles.         95 


Capitals  and  wander  among  their  gal- 
leries and  treasures,  every  step  we 
take  enlarges  our  conceptions  of  beauty 
and  our  standard  of  wealth.  And 
much  more,  we  trust,  will  it  be  so  in  an 
infinitely  higher  range,  if,  by  the  grace 
of  God,  we  find  ourselves  in  the  better 
country,  that  is  in  the  Heavenly. 

The  apron-string. 

My  youth,  on  pleasure  bent,  found 
ample  swing 

In  the  sweet  tether  of  the  "  apron- 
string." 

The  blessed  mourners. 

"  Blessed  are  they  that  mourn."  They 
that  take  sorrow  jauntily,  or  who 
amidst  work,  pleasure,  society,  or 
change,  seek  to  quench  thought  and 
feeling  and  so  to  forget  their  loss— are 


96  ^irkings  from 


not  blessed  in  their  grief.  It  is  not 
well  to  forget  the  loss  of  those  whom 
we  love,  but  rather  to  remember  it 
rightly. 

"Litera  scripta  manet." 

You  cannot  help  it  now — look  not  so 

sad — 
Such  sorrow  cannot  better  what  was 

bad. 

Of  judges  that  know  not  the  law. 

Christ's  main  command  is  that  we 
pray  to  God.  If  a  man  do  not  keep 
this  main  command,  how  can  he  know 
that  he  knows  God  ?  The  part  which 
is  best  in  him  goes  on  in  darkness.  All 
his  foundations  are  out  of  course.  Are 
those  men  who  do  not  even  know  the 
highest  life  to  be  judges  of  that  life  ? 
Is  their  authority  to  be  taken  against 


51  Iporkct  of  Nibbles.         97 

its  reality  ?  What  can  be  more  pre- 
posterous? I  do  not  want  to  press 
matters  too  far  home,  but  you  may 
depend  upon  it  these  men  do  not  pray. 
God's  wind  in  due  course  shall  blow 
them  and  their  inanities,  not  to  say 
insanities,  into  the  blackness  of  dark- 
ness for  ever. 

The  Milken  Way. 

The  Earth  under  Heaven  is  lain, 
At  the  fount  of  her  life  and  her  rest ; 

And  yon  is  a  beautiful  vein 

Streaking  that  bountiful  breast. 

Increase  and  multiply. 

St.  John,  when  he  wrote  to  his  read- 
ers as  his  "  children  ",  wrote  from  the 
high  position  of  one  who  had  leaned, 
and  still  was  leaning,  on  the  breast  of 


98  pickings  from 


Christ.  The  new  man  is  in  the  highest 
degree  philoprogenitive.  Who  would 
not  fain  bring  many  sons  to  glory  ? 

"  Odora  vis." 

Those  firs  that  feather  black   on  the 

blue- 
Yon  is  an  English  wood  ; 
That  sea-line   faint   that    bounds  my 

view — 
Yon  is  our  English  flood  : 
The  scent  of  the  May  from  the  whitened 

vale  as  far  as  mine  eye  can  tell— 
It  makes  me  love  my  life  the  more,  that 

this  is  an  English  smell. 

The  old  man  and  the  old  dog. 

Canine  forms  move  among  a  set  of 
ideas  and  facts  which  they  entirely 
fail  to  catch  ;  and  is  not  that  exactly 
the  way  in  which  men  of  mere  intellect, 


31  pocket  of  ^ebbks.         99 

or  rather  mere  first-Adamic  men,  move 
among  Second-Adamic  men  ?  They  are 
among  them,  but  not  of  them.  This 
IS  true  whether  the  men  in  question  be 
virtuous  or  not.  If,  however,  they  are 
virtuous,  and  come  up  to  the  first- 
Adamic  make  by  having  good  con- 
sciences, then  they  look  up  to  and  love 
Christians,  and  are,  many  of  them,  not 
far  from  the  Kingdom ;  but  still  they 
regard  Christians  with  a  kind  of 
wonder,  and  sometimes  unjustly  think 
they  "go  too  far."  The  fact  is,  the 
latter  are  "new"  men  and  women, 
while  those  who  are  old-fashioned,  after 
the  former  type,  and  are  not  born  again, 
but  who  have  the  comfort  of  being 
lovely  and  pleasant  in  their  lives,  often 
are  content  with  the  attainments  of 
that  grade  of  being,  and  do  not  care  to 
be  risen   with   Christ !     But  in  some 


loo  pickings  from 

parts  of  the  planet  the  air  is  so  full  of 
spores  of  the  Christ-nature,  and  so 
many  seeds  of  divine  words  fly  about, 
that  such  honest  and  good  hearts  as 
these  are  very  likely  to  be  dusted  with 
the  farina  of  the  new  life  ;  and  then 
they  arise,  and  their  eyes  are  opened, 
and  they  have  joy  unspeakable  and 
full  of  glory. 

^v  irpos  tv. 

All  that  I  have,  without  myself, 
Is  not  enough  for  Thee  ; — 

Without  Thyself,  not  all  Thou  hast 
Can  be  enough  for  me. 

Meet  merriment. 

Beyond  doubt  the  climate  of  celestial 
immortality,  that  glorious  Conservatory 
of  the  blest,  will  bring  forth  in  the 
lives  of  many  of   our    kinsfolk    and 


^  ^trrkft  of  pebbles.       loi 


acquaintance  blooms  of  grace  which 
now  the  most  far-seeing  among  us 
would  laugh  outright  at  the  thought 
of.  May  we  be  there  to  see,  and  to  be 
the  subjects  of  this  shouting  merriment 
of  the  sons  of  God. 

Twi-unity. 

To  the  God-Man. 

So  closely  art  Thou  in  God's  heart. 
And  God  so  close  in  Thine, 

I  wonder  which  is  human  part. 
And  which  is  Thy  divine. 

Of  those  "not  blind,  who  wait 
for  ligiit  ". 

"  Blessed  are  they  that  have  not  seen 
and  yet  have  believed."  This  seems 
to  mean  also,  Blessed  are  they  who 
have  not  seen  with  the  mental  eye  how 


102  ^tfkJngs  from 

things  are,  but  who  yet  know  within 
their  hearts  that  what  Christ  tells  them 
is  truth  ;  who,  when  He  says,  "What 
I  do  thou  knowest  not  now,  but  thou 
shalt  know  hereafter,"  are  too  delicate 
to  press  Him  further,  but  who  do  not 
on  that  account,  in  vulgar  dudgeon, 
"go  away,  and  walk  no  more  with 
Him". 

The  boy  and  the  boat. 

Father,  be  by  me  when  I  come  to  die ; 

Deal  Thou  with  me,  as  I  was  wont  of 
yore 

To  deal  with  yon  toy-craft,  that  heed- 
fully 

I  sent  forth-faring  from  the  firm-set 
shore  :^ 

When  I  am  launching  forth  on  Ever- 
more, 

Come  to  that  verge  of  Immortality  ; 


^  docket  of  f  ebblc0. 


Fix  me  fair  linen,  ample,  aft  and  fore  ; 

Secure  its  threadage,  lest  it  flap  and 
fly; 

My  rudder  fast  at  some  just  angle  set, 

To  catch  what  breezes  are  careering  by; 

These  temper  of  Thy  grace,  lest  billow- 
beat 

I  founder  in  yon  dread  Infinity ; 

But  most  I  pray  Thee,  then  to  hold  in 
hand 

A  line — to  draw  me  somewhere  safe  to 
land. 

Of  the  solitude  of  specialness. 

As  you  advance  you  seem  to  be 
getting  more  and  more  alone  into  your 
speciality  of  capacity,  your  special 
modes  of  doing  your  part  on  earth,  and 
your  special  facilities  of  accepting  the 
advices  of  Heaven.  This  being  so,  you 
will  feel  that,  but  for  God,  you  would 


ro4  ^k  kings  from 


be  left  more  and  more  lonely  in  life. 
But  as  your  Christ  becomes  revealed 
in  you,  and  as  He  reveals  to  you  more 
and  more  your  hope  of  your  special 
glory,  you  feel  less  and  less  alone,  be- 
cause the  Father  is  with  you.  You 
may  vi^ell  pray  as  you  look  forward, 
"  If  thy  presence  go  not  with  me, 
carry  me  not  up  hence."  To  grow,  but 
not  to  grow  in  Christ,  is  a  desolate 
prospect  indeed.  "  The  Lord  knows" 
to  what  such  an  one  is  coming.  While 
not  varying  from  the  species,  pray 
keep  thy  special  individuality. 

The  Downs  and  the  Alps. 

Fair,  as  it  fell,  the  morning  snow 

Arrays  yon  hills  awhile  ; 
But  waits  to  heaven  again  to  go 

When  once  the  sun  shall  smile. 


^  ^oc'ktt  of  pebbles.       los 


So  on  my  heart,  this  low-browed  plot, 

Thy  morning  mercies  lie  ; 
But  as  my  vulgar  day  grows  hot, 

They  vanish  by  and  by. 

Yet  ah,  henceforth,  when  ought  comes 
down, 

May  such  good  luck  betide. 
That  I  may  make  it  all  mine  own. 

And  lure  it  to  abide. 

Let  me  so  praise  Thee  in  my  height, 
And  reach  Thee  with  my  crest, 

That  all  Thy  graces  that  alight 
Grow  parcel  of  my  breast. 

Siissex  Downs,  '76. 

Of  love  and  loss. 

When  we  lose  one  we  love,  let  us 
learn  to  love  the  more  one  we  cannot 
lose. 


iy6  Etchings  from 


Of  wet  light. 

When  the  Love  of  God  breaks  on 
our  landscape,  with  "  clear  shining 
after  rain",  then  —  then  —  what  was 
dark  becomes  illumined,  and  outlines 
of  unimagined  charm  spring  forth  from 
shadows  which  before  seemed  one 
massive  neutrality. — Dip  every  dull 
pebble  in  the  water  of  life.  Wet  light 
thus  does  better  service  than  "  dry". 

The  Hour  and  the  Man. 

What  if  the  end  of  the  world  were  to 
come  down  upon  us  instead  of  our 
ending  during  its  life-time?  What  if 
our  Sun  were  to  suffer  a  sky-change, 
such  as  we  saw  a  kindred  Sun  suffer 
but  yesterday  ?  If  we  had  an  hour's 
warning,  how  easy  we  should  feel 
during  that  hour  about  the  persons  who 


31  pocket  of  pebbles.       107 


would  not  then  be  left  behind ;  or  about 
the  works  half  done,  which  we  might 
not  have  had  time  to  finish,  and  which 
would  not  then  need  finishing.  All 
those  feelings,  which  any  of  us  may- 
have,  of  desire  to  be  remembered  ;  of 
leaving,  at  least  among  our  country- 
men or  friends,  if  not  for  world-wide 
use,  thoughts  and  emotions  by  which 
our  memor}'  may  be  endeared,  and  by 
which  being  dead  we  still  may  speak  : 
—none  of  these  things  then  would 
move  us.  Papers  would  want  no 
arranging  ;  no  mementoes  would  want 
leaving,  no  messages  sending  ;  no  dis- 
agreeable anticipations  would  haunt 
us,  or  flit  before  us,  of  being  laid  out 
and  wept  for ;  we  should  be  on  the 
alert  for  flight,  ready  to  be  carried  off 
from  the  ruins  of  the  world;  looking 
on  the  tip-toe  of  expectation  for  the 


io8  ^itkings  from 


coming  of  the  Son  of  Man.  We  should 
leave  our  houses,  and  walk  abroad,  and 
watch  the  heavens  ;  and,  if  real  and 
humble  believers,  I  think  we  should 
lift  up  our  heart  and  voice,  and  sing 
aloud  for  our  Redemption  drawing 
nigh. — And  yet,  if  all  our  little  affairs 
are  now  in  clear  order,  arranged  for 
death  ;  if  we  are  working  while  it  is 
day  ;  if  we  are  trusting  our  unfinished 
works,  as  well  we  may,  constantly  in 
the  Master's  hands  ;  if  we  leave  with 
calm  common-sense  the  discomfiture  of 
our  dissolution  to  be  got  over  by  our 
Christian  kindred  in  the  course  of 
nature — why,  thus  we  may  contemplate 
the  end  of  this  life,  come  when  or  how 
it  may,  with  much  the  same  good- 
humour  as  if  we  knew  we  had  but 
another  hour  on  the  planet  ;  and  may 
say  always,  "  Come,  Lord  Jesus,  come 


31  ^otket  of  ^ebbUs.       109 


quickly".  Nay  this  is  the  only  con- 
dition in  which  those  at  least  should 
be  living,  who  are  wont  to  travel  on 
lines  dependent  on  the  overwrought 
nerves  of  one  signalman,  and  where 
immortals  fly  along  the  same  rails 
with  "  goods". 

Of  mad  moodiness. 

Some  always  think  that  everything 
is  against  them.  In  moods  of  discon- 
tent or  unhappiness  it  is  astonishing 
wiiat  trifles  can  assume  an  air  of  an- 
tagonism. 

A  jewel. 

\Vhat  is  charity  itself  but  the  eleva- 
tion and  refinement  of  fairness  ?  Have 
perfect  the  one  virtue  of  fairness,  and 
you  will  have  all  virtues  perfect.  So 
indeed    with   each  of  the    virtues    all 


no  pickings  from 

round — a  dictujn  of  Aristotle,  repeated 
by  St.  James,  which  will  bear  the 
closest  investigation. 


Spring  weather. 

I  know  a  life  much  like  an  April  day, 
Here  hung  with  clouds,  and  there  alive 

with  sun  ; 
And  neither  in  the  selfsame  mood  will 

stay, 
While  'neath  her  heaven  the  winds  of 

feeling  run. 
Lo !  all  is  dark,  where  one  short  hour 

agone 
Were  thousand  sunbeams  lovingly  a: 

play; 
And  presently,  I  trow,  smiles  many  a 

one 
Will  chase  the  grief  that  now  can  lower 

so  grey.— 


^  J^ocket  of  ^cbble5.        m 

Such  weather,  to  my  mind,  is  fairer 

far 
Than  where  the  simmering  hours  all 

summer  are. 
Thy  sorrow,  girl,  is  more  than  duly 

sad — 
But  then  thy  gladness  is  divinely  glad  ; 
And   soon,    methinks,   a    change  will 

light  thy  brow. 
And  all  thine  hours  be  what  the  best 

are  now. 
Heidelberg,  '52. 

The  Life-Book  and  the  death- 
book. 

hiscription  for  the  Register  of 

Burials. 

May  all  who  breathe  this  mortal  breath 

And  strive  this  mortal  strife. 

Ere  written  in  our  book  of  death. 

Stand  in  Thy  Book  of  Life. 


112  ^irktngs  from 

Of  better  and  of  worse. 

It  is  only  by  my  fault  that  I  am  not 
better  than  I  am  ;  only  by  Thy  mercy 
that  I  am  not  worse  than  I  am. 

Night-prayer  by  the  sea. 
King  of  the  vasty  water-floods  of  grace, 
With  Thee  I  pace  beside  Thy  waves 

to-night — 
My  barren  spirit,  like  this  foot-marked 

place. 
Crossed  and  recrossed  by  thoughts  that 

were  not  right. 
O  may  an  even,  washed,  and  ordered 

space 
Meet  the  fresh  Eye  of  Day,  so  sweet 

and  bright  ! 
To-morrow  may  no  wandering  sin  leave 

trace 
On  that  pure  level  left  at  morning-light  I 


^  pocket  of  ^tbblts.       113 

And  hear  me,  Heavenly  Spirit,  when 

I  pray 
Tliy  boundless  love  to  lave  me  day  by 

day  ; 
May  no  unsightly  flotson  lig,  and  bide 
The  sweeping  refluence  of  Thy  nightly 

tide  ;— 
Here,  Father,  let  me  love  with  Thee 

to  walk. 
And   ever  feel   Thee   smile  and   hear 

Thee  talk ! 
Littl  hamptoji,  '69. 

A  brilliant  engagement. 

As  in  the  moral  life  feelings  are  to 
principles,  so,  in  the  intellectual, 
cleverness  is  to  the  power  of  logical 
inference.  The  same  natures  are  apt 
to  have  the  corresponding  terms  of  this 
proportion.      In  which  sex  you  com- 


114  ^jrktngs  ftom 

monly  find  which  terms,  it  would  be 
invidious  to  enquire  !  You  may  often 
find  in  a  mind  a  delicacy  of  observation, 
a  brilliancy  of  repartee,  a  rapidity  of 
application,  and  a  wide  range  of  ideas, 
with  an  unusual  facility  of  association  ; 
and  you  may  accordingly  form  a  censure 
of  there  being  very  great  ability.  But 
once  come  to  close  quarters,  or 
engage  in  a  serious  discussion,  and  you 
will  find  that  your  truth  has  to  fight  its 
way  inch  by  inch  through  phalanxes  of 
all  the  common  fallacies,  and  to  storm 
successive  outworks  of  vulgar  objec- 
tion :— all  those  light  powers  collapse, 
and  that  shining  array  of  imposing 
capacities  troops  off  discomfited  and 
proves  itself  phantasmal.  Teachers 
will  find  it  well,  after  having  worked 
the  memory  mainly  (as  I  remember 
hearing    my  great    master,  Arnold  of 


31  ^orkft  of  l^ebblcs.       115 


Rugby,  say)  till  the  age  of  11,  to  teach 
girls  and  boys  the  elementary  laws  of 
reasoning.  This  should  be  done,  not 
chiefly  in  necessary  truth — for  life 
has  very  little  to  do  with  such  truth, 
except  in  some  of  the  sciences  ;  but  in 
contingent  matter,  that  is  to  say,  in  the 
matter  of  human  life.  To  this  practice 
of  reasoning  those  lighter  powers 
should  be  made  to  minister. 

■yvwp.T]  viKav  ifiepov  viK(iS|jL€vov' 
or  "See  the  conquering  hero 
—goes". 

Her  talk  was  neither  large  nor  small ; 
Of  neither  mind  nor  mirth  was  lack  ; 
How  gracefully  she  caught  my  ball. 
And  toyed  with  it,  and  tossed  it  back  ! 

'Twas  pleasant  to  behold  the  play, 
The  flashing,  merciless  intent. 


ii6  pickings  fccrm 


Wherewith,  before  she  stood  at  bay, 
She  spent  her  Hght-armed  argument. 

Self-gathered  now  she  quick  prepares 
Her  massed,  her  main  defence — but  lo  ! 
Scattered  are  all  her  pretty  squares 
Before  my  cry  of  " divido". 

And  yet,  such  honour  fired  her  van. 
When  all  her  fairy  lines  are  broke— 
In  winning  ways,  as  women  can. 
Her  cruel  losses  out  she  spoke. 

I  could  not  find  the  heart  to  beat. 
And  gladly  strained  a  point  to  find 
A  way  to  cover  the  retreat 
Of  such  a  gallant  little  mind. 

And  though  for  very  Truth's  dear  sake, 
I  dared  not  let  her  win  the  day, 
I  gave  her — what  she  would  not  take ; — 
The  conquered  man  I  moved  away  ! 


Jl  pocket  of  pebbles.       117 


"Tempora  mutantur". 

How  soon  passing  events  become  the 
subject  of  painting,  poetry,  and  history. 
We  move  and  act  among  them,  and 
are  a  part  of  them  to-day.  To- 
morrow, like  Aeneas,  who  saw  his 
own  doings  on  the  brazen  gates  of  the 
Tyrian  Queen,  we  have  the  whole  hung 
in  galleries  or  described  in  books,  and 
moving  us  again,  to  indignation,  to 
merriment,  or  to  tears. 

The  succession  of  clowns. 

Note  the  extraordinary  accuracy 
with  which  St.  John  gives  the  account 
of  the  endeavours  made  by  the  Jews 
to  overthrow  the  miracle  of  the  opening 
of  the  eyes  of  the  man  who  had  been 
born  blind.  The  same  also  may  be 
said  of  the  narrative  of  the  raising  of 


ii8  ^ixhinss  from 


Lazarus.  They  doubtless  took  great, 
if  not  equal  pains  to  overthrow  many 
more,  if  not  most  of  the  great  miracles. 
These  accounts  seem  given  us  as 
samples.  Thompson,  Master  of  Trinity, 
in  a  lecture  on  the  Phsedrus  of  Plato, 
told  us  that  he  did  not  remember  a 
better  instance  of  that  wisdom  of  clowns 
(aypot/co9  crocpLu)  which  Socrates 
"  turns  to  scorn  with  lips  divine",  than 
the  explanation  of  the  miracle  of  the 
loaves  and  fishes  given  by  that  German 
Professor  who  said  that  the  multitude 
brought  food  in  their  pockets  ! 

The  seeds  of  time. 

There  are  still  nebulous  and  floating 
masses  of  humanity— Tartars,  Sclaves, 
African  tribes  and  the  like— out  of  which 
our  Developer  is  gradually  shaping 
civil  svocieties.     From  these,    in  due 


51  ^ofket  of  pebbles.       119 


time,  nations  may  form  themselves, 
that  will  orb  about  in  the  Family- 
system  of  States.  Perhaps,  as  they 
grow  into  an  orderly  sense  of  right,  they 
will  be  warned  by  our  recorded  errors, 
and  will  develop  the  fruits  of  Christian 
life  better  and  faster  than  our  older 
nations — which  have  so  long  been  re- 
volving in  the  sunshine  of  knowledge 
and  yet  are  so  barren.  Yet  what  ikey 
will  be  depends  in  dreadful  proportion 
on  what  we  are. 

The  wilderness  turned  into  the 
garden  of  the  Lord. 

In  how  many  persons  you  do  not 
see — I  had  rather  said  in  how  few  you 
do  see— the  full  beauty  of  their  char- 
acter and  the  free  play  of  their  nature. 
This  is  especially  so  in  the  case  of 
those  lower  natures  who  have  not  yet 


I20  ^icktuga  from 

admitted  the  working  of  the  Spirit  of 
Christ ;  but  it  holds  true  of  Christians 
also.  They  never  yet  fulfil  their 
Master's  joy.  But  kindly  remember 
how  much  this  is  due  to  their  surround- 
ings. Plant  them  in  happy  circum- 
stances, where  they  shall  be  attended 
by  love  and  encompassed  by  sympathy; 
and  you  will  soon  see  what  exquisite 
flowers,  hitherto  unsuspected,  will  be 
called  forth,  and  will  start  up  in  their 
lives.  Then,  if  never  before,  will  they 
show  themselves  "free  bloomers". 

Of  pleasure. 

In  vanquishing  desire,  our  wisdom 
is,  not  so  much  to  bring  ourselves  to 
imagine  that  a  wrong  pleasure  is  not  a 
pleasure,  but,  recognising  that  it  is  a 
pleasure  of  a  lower  kind,  we  must 
simply  remember  as  a  settled  fact  that 


Jl  ^oclaei  ot  -i^ehbles.        121 

pleasures  which  break  the  predica- 
ments of  duty  are  wrong  and  therefore 
moreover  full  of  danger. 

Of  business-like  habits. 

Be  not  lightly  turned  off  from  doing 
one  thing  to  doing  another.  If  you 
have  made  your  plan  to  do  one  thing, 
let  that,  except  for  cogent  reasons,  be 
well  done  first.  Do  not,  in  an  idle, 
vagabond  way,  turn  off  to  whatever 
else  may  offer  itself,  for  the  mere  plea- 
sure of  the  moment.  Let  not  your 
actions  be  swayed  hither  and  thither 
by  the  vague  currents  of  the  hour,  like 
those  long  river-weeds,  to  use  the  poet's 
image,  which  follow  every  movement  of 
the  waters.  At  the  same  time  I  suppose 
it  must  always  be  a  trying  and  painful 
thing  for  men  of  genius  to  postpone  an 
afflatus;  and  yet  the  mere  needs  of 


122  pickings  from 

life  demand  this,  even  when  a  man 
has  no  other  main  work ;  for  he  still 
has  to  eat,  drink,  and  sleep,  and  main- 
tain some  few  relations  with  society. 
How  many  great  works  do  we  owe  to 
the  strong  sacrifice  of  other  claims; 
and  even  the  lives  of  very  plain-going 
persons  require  a  certain  amount  of 
generalship  in  this  matter — that  is,  if 
they  are  wont  to  become  really  inter- 
ested in  any  works  at  all. 

Of  "the  booby  offspring  of  a 
booby  sire". 

To-day  I  said  to  a  young  student 
who  was  at  home  for  the  Cambridge 
Vacation,  "  How  does  the  work  get 
on?"  He  said  in  an  off-hand,  self- 
satisfied  manner,  "Oh  !  I^^«7work." 
I  had  been  a  Tutor;  and  my  counte- 
nance naturally  fell,  and  my  blood  was 


^  J^ocktt  of  J^tbbles.       123 


up.  But  the  father  and  mother,  who 
stood  by  (I  speak  without  exaggera- 
tion) positively  laughed  !  Nay  but 
they  dzd  laugh.  Against  all  the  efforts 
of  Tutors,  their  advice  and  reproof, 
their  attempts  to  warn  him  of  idleness, 
and  to  induce  him  to  learn  what  his 
father,  after  hard  work,  was  paying  for 
him  to  be  taught,  lo  and  behold,  the  silly 
smile  of  that  very  sire,  showing  himself 
to  his  son  as  one  who  regards  idleness 
as  a  condition  to  be  amused  at,  if  not 
an  ideal  to  be  aimed  at !  How  woe- 
fully the  difSculties  of  educators  are 
enhanced  by  the  folly  of  homes. 

With  regard  to  the  great 
Geometrician. 

Let  your  going  out  and  coming  in 
be  with  humility,  respect,  and  grace. 
Often  shut  to  the  door,  and  confront 


124  pickings  from 

yourself  with  the  Master-Builder  of  your 
life  and  the  Architect  of  the  Universe. 
Be  able  to  lay  your  hand  on  your  breast 
and  on  the  Book,  and  to  call  down  a 
blessing  on  your  guileless  resolutions. 
Act  on  the  square  ;  be  what  they  call 
in  Lincolnshire  a  "level"  man;  rectify 
your  walk  by  the  plummet  of  truth  ; 
observe  all  your  relations  with  all  your 
brethren,  and  measure  them  with  the 
compasses  of  a  sound  judgment ;  ob- 
serve strict  morals  ;  let  brotherly  love 
continue;  relieve  to  the  best  of  your 
ability  those  with  whom,  in  the  course 
of  your  time,  you  are  brought  into 
more  especial  brotherhood  ;  and  let 
these  virtues  distinguish  you  through 
all  the  grades  of  your  ascent  through 
life.  This  will  be  to  live  always  in  the 
noonday.  You  will  thus  show  signs  of 
always  being  with  your  Master;  you 


Jl  Rochet  x){  ^ebbks.       125 


will  give  tokens  of  keeping  the  best 
company  ;  your  words  will  be  seasoned 
with  significant  grace  ;  and  so  you  will 
pass  pleasantly  into  that  prepared  and 
abiding  Building  of  God — the  House 
not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the 
Heavens. 

Of  our  approaches  to  the  Father 
by  knowledge  and  love. 

Not  till  I  loved  Thee  did  I  know 
Thee  ;  nor  till  I  knew  Thee  did  I  love 
Thee.  I  loved  Thee  at  first  under  the 
hazy  veils  of  a  faith  that  was  but  half 
faith  ;  but  when  I  came  to  know  even 
what  I  know  of  Thee  now,  the  love  I 
had  before  seemed  unmeet  to  be  called 
love ;  and  yet  it  was  that  which  lured 
me  on  to  know  Thee,  and  so  to  love 
Thee,  more.     But,  ah  me  !  how  far  is 


126  ?pirkmgs  Ac. 


mine  eye  still  from  seeing  Thee  as  Thou 
art,  and  my  heart  from  loving  Thee  as 
I  ought ! 

Of  changing  an  "i"  into  an  "o". 

Love  broadens,  lengthens  life  ;  below, 

above, 
Who  loves  the  most  to  live  will  live  the 

most  to  Love 


DEO   GRATIAS. 


\ 


